SUMMER'S MATURITY

     September is my favorite time of year.  Although most vegetation is still green, as in summer, September is the time of summer's maturity in the Middle Atlantic States, which starts around the Autumn Equinox.  At that time, a peaceful, bountiful feeling prevails here; most plant growth has stopped and gone to seed and the bustle of wildlife raising young ceased as those critters prepare for the coming winter.  Bird song is no longer heard.  

     The amount of daylight each succeeding day decreases toward winter.  Sunrise is now in the east instead of the northeast and sunset is in the west instead of in the northwest.  The sun is noticeably lower in the sky and shadows are longer, and lie differently than in July.  

     Many pretty, sunny September mornings begin quietly and still, with a different, relaxed "feel" than earlier in summer when plants were growing rapidly and wildlife was busily tending to their young.  Afternoons in September are still warm, but some nights are cooler.  Wildlife and people feel the coming of winter.

     Field corn is harvested in September, soybean leaves turn yellow and orange pumpkins decorate local fields under tall weeds and grasses that are loaded with seeds.  Red-ripe apples are lovely on trees in orchards.  Now is the time of apple cider. 

     Some lovely flowers start to bloom in September, including asters, water mints, gentians, sneezeweeds, morning glories and others.  Seeing their pretty blooms is seeing summer's maturity.

     Hearing the chanting of true katydids in woodland treetops and the trills and chirps of tree crickets on bushes in the suburbs are more signs of summer's maturity.  Katydids and tree crickets grew and matured through summer and into fall.  And those fiddling insects, now adults, add much audible enjoyment to autumn evenings in woods and suburbs.

     At this time, many kinds of wild creatures prepare for the coming winter.  Several kinds of birds, and the beautiful monarch butterflies, migrate in September to warmer climes, the birds to find food.  Some birds, including bald eagles and broad-winged hawks migrate during the day, but several kinds of small, woodland birds push south at night.

     Wood chucks and white-tailed deer put on layers of fat, chipmunks store nuts and seeds and certain kinds of bats go south, all in preparation for winter.  

     Many kinds of attractive wild berries, including those on spicebushes, multiflora roses, Tartarian honeysuckle and others, are ripe and brightly colored by September.  They have obvious colors so birds will eat them, digest their pulp, but pass their seeds in the birds' droppings throughout the countryside.  In that way, some plants are sown far and wide.  

     A few dying and colored leaves are noticed on certain kinds of trees and vines by late September.  Black gum, red maple and sumac trees, and poison ivy and Virginia creeper vines are some of the first deciduous plants to have some striking foliage in September, all of which help beautify the countryside.

     Life, locally, winds down after the Autumn Equinox.  Berries and seeds are ripe, dying green leaves turn colors, migrations continue and rodents store food.  Most plant and animal energy is now directed at preparing for the coming winter to survive it.  


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