We're not done yet - Autumn Meadowhawk still flying

Often by November 15th we have put away our nets and generally spend less time searching for insects and take more notice of the birds which have suddenly appeared at the feeder. The temperatures today reached the mid 50's and a walk around the yard found this Autumn Meadowhawk Sympetrum vacinum perched on one of my "snake boards" taking in the afternoon sun.

The leaves are gone From the trees, cleaned off the lawn and even out of most of the gutters now the the color of the day seems to be red... Besides the meadowhawk the berries of Winterberry (below), Crabapples and Cranberry bush Viburnan really steal the show... It has been our pleasure this year to spend a good deal of time planting wildlife friendly food plants around the yard and seeing them fruit the first year gives us a lot of satisfaction. Not a lot of berries yet but they will only get better as the shrubs and trees age. The most interesting thing we happen to see today was a large bat flying south in the twilight of a great sunset... I don't know much about bats but with all the concern for our bat populations any sighting is worthy of note...

dave@dhsmall.net
http://www.pbase.com/dhsmall