Strange fall weather
gardenchat@hort.net
  • Subject: Strange fall weather
  • From: A*@aol.com
  • Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:55:11 -0400 (EDT)
Hi, Is anybody still out there?
Is everybody else's fall weather as strange as ours?
We are having mostly cloudy or rainy and cool - far too
much gloomy for me.  Colors are very spotty - a few 
bright patches of maple and Virginia creeper and poison
ivy, but many have not turned at all, and some have just
dropped leaves.  My dogwoods are turning but not their usual
brilliant colors.  The Kousa dogwood has not even began to
turn.  And this is two weeks past Columbus Day, which is
normally considered the peak date for fall color in this area.
 
No frost, but days in the low 60s and nights in the low 40s.
I am ready for frost.  My bulbs are here to plant, but the beds
where I will plant them are still lush, and I just haven't had the
heart to cut them down to plant bulbs. Don't have many to plant -
the old back won't let me do too much, and at my age it is an 
act of faith to plant them anyway, but fall bulbs are too strong a
habit to break.
 
The strangest thing is the change in bird behavior.  All summer
the woodpeckers would finish off a suet cake in less than two
days.  I was too stingy to give them one more often than every
two days.  The last three weeks, they have hardly eaten more
than one a week.  Most noticeable is that the Red-Bellied woodies
that we had a couple of families of have disappeared.  They have
always been year-around residents, so where have they gone?
Also, our large flock of goldfinches have disappeared.  At one time
this summer you could see as many as six or seven lined up at
the tubefeeder, and more flying in and out continually.  Now the
feeder has titmice, chickadees, cardinals and an occasional
nuthatch, but I haven't seen a goldfinch in weeks. They, too, were
always year-round residents.  Any ideas?
Auralie

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