Summer Ends, Fall Begins.

Hello everyone! It was quite warm yesterday still, now, by that I mean warm, not hot by any means. However, it was still in the mid 70s Fahrenheit, which is 24 degrees Celsius. But it felt warmer with the humidity factored in. Today, although it was raining lightly early this morning, the humidity level dropped considerably, as did the temperature. We did make it up to 66F (19C).

Of course, we had temperatures like that in August. Summer ended after the long weekend in August, which is the first weekend. However, the temperature recovered a bit later in the month, but still more fall-like than summer. Summer. My favorite time of the year. The trees are lush and green, plants are growing thick and thriving, birds are singing early every morning, insects are everywhere.

Now, the leaves are changing color, plants are withering, flowers are few and only the more hardy varieties remain, no singing birds. Actually, most of our birds have now headed south. Some left in early August and it has been a steady decline in numbers and varieties since then.

Summer. My favorite season of the year. One of my favorite summer birds is the White Pelican, a beautiful and very large bird that breeds on our lake each summer. I love to photograph the pelicans, they are just such amazing birds. And huge. Easily our largest bird, even larger than the Bald Eagle which we have abundantly in our area as well.

Summer. I missed spending time at the river again this summer. That was always my favorite place to go. I would spend hours at the river nearly every day. It was also great exercise walking there and back again. Some beautiful places down by the river. I had my favorite spots, but everywhere it was beautiful. Always lots to see and photograph, ducks, loons, eagles, pelicans, sparrows, chickadees, warblers and so many more. Plus snakes.

One year while lying on my stomach to get some pictures of a mushroom a snake came slithering up beside me and stopped. It looked at me and allowed me to get some pictures of it. I saw them on other occasions too and got more pictures. These are Garter snakes, harmless critters and not very big. The one that particular day was about 3 feet long.

Summer. Warm temperatures and sunny skies. This year we did indeed have some warm temperatures during three heat waves, though in between it was cooler than normal. As for sunny skies, this year we had more clouds than sunshine, but then, it’s been that way all year so far. I like hot weather. Although this year the hot weather did not like me, which was rather odd. It was the first time in my life that heat affected me so adversely. Normally I love it. But then, this year hasn’t been too normal.

Summer. Chipmunks running around on the deck, and on me. Right up onto my head at times. They would stand on their hind legs, stretching up as high as they could, looking at me. I would put my finger down close to them and they would hold on with their front legs and I would lift them up onto my shoulder. I only saw one chipmunk all summer, certainly not like the years that I was just speaking about.

Summer. Such a wonderful time of the year. Spring and fall are beautiful also at times, but they can also bring snow at times. There is no snow in the summer, which is nice. Then there is that other season of the year that I don’t really like talking about. It is by far our longest season. And coldest. With snow, lots of snow usually. Plus it’s cold. Snow can be very beautiful. But it’s usually too cold to enjoy it.

Summer. Walking barefoot in the grass. Sitting in the shade of a large tree on a hot day. Enjoying time on the lake, or swimming. But, summer has ended for another year and fall has begun. I’m not talking about “traditional seasons”. I mean meteorological seasons which make more sense for us in the north. While on my balcony this afternoon a flower fly, with it’s bright black and yellow markings, landed on my hand. So beautiful. Kind of a good bye to summer. These insects are harmless though they are often confused with wasps. Great pollinators too. Well, I hope you all enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.