Summer Ramblings. #8

Hello everyone! Well, here we are at the end of summer once again. Today it is raining heavily, the thunder is rumbling loudly through the clouds and it is much cooler. Right now it is 59F (15C) and it is supposed to be a high of 68F (20C) by later this afternoon. Somehow I doubt it will get that warm unless the sun comes out for a while.

It’s a nice day to sit here, drink coffee and look out the rain splattered window at the very wet scene around our neighborhood. The Ring-Billed Gulls are enjoying the wet grounds of our little park area across the street. One week ago we actually had a small fair show up in town with rides and other things for people to do. It was small. There was a Ferris wheel and three other main rides, plus a couple of rides for young kids.

Looking through my rain splattered window.

Three of those rides were very popular and full of people all the time the place was open for business. The poor person operating the Ferris wheel got a lot of time to sleep. In the three days they were here that Ferris wheel was in operation 4 times that I saw and the most people on it was six, once there was only 3 people. But I guess younger people want the more thrilling rides, which is understandable, they looked like great fun.

The rain is taking a break at this point.

Well, except for one of them, I wouldn’t go on that one for anything. The other two I would have loved to go on, except they would have torn my back apart. So I didn’t try them. If it wasn’t for my back I would have gone on those two. I love those rides that spin in two different directions at the same time and go up and down. Great fun. They had nice weather for it too. Rain like today would be terrible for a business venture like that.

And the park where they were set up is nothing but water right now. The end of summer. Many of our birds have already left us, heading back south. The Common Nighthawk has gone and has been gone for a couple of weeks already. They are a smaller insect eating bird that flies at night mostly. During migration they will fly in the evenings while it is still daylight.

One of several Ring-Billed Gulls enjoying the rain soaked ground at the park.

But while here during nesting season, they are out mostly at night. They arrive in spring about the last week of May or first week of June and leave us by mid August. Many of our summer warbler species and vireo species have gone already too. Others are getting ready to go soon. Some of our summer sparrow species are also on the move and will be completely gone in about a week or so.

Another gull coming in to join his friends.

It’s amazing how many of our summer birds are gone by the first week of September. It’s the end of summer. We will still get some nice weather I’m sure, but it won’t be the same as summer. Even the leaves on many trees are starting to turn yellow, fall off and begin to gather along the curbs of the streets.

Some leaves changing color on the trees across the street.

Summer is short, but fall can be a wonderful time of year as well. It’s just that summer is my favorite season. But it’s time to move on and embrace the beauty of fall. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2024 Steve McLeod.