I marked the equinox on Monday, of course, but there’s another one: the day when you get 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of night. That day is near the astronomical equinox, not on it. The variance is attributable to the fact that sunlight is refracted as it travels through the atmosphere and comes from an enormous astronomical body, rather than from a point.
Today’s that other day. Daylight and dark are balanced.
Some recent sights to mark the season:
• After a month with little rain, even the goldenrods looked ragged. But the forest sunflowers were radiant. When we finally got a light shower, all the plants looked happy except the sunflowers. They were drooped and bedraggled. I love sunflowers and have been told I am a contrarian.
• A light rain after a long dry spell knocks dried pine needles to the ground. The pines shed year-round, but old needles stay aloft until we get a blow. The trail was covered with a thick layer.
• A flight of Canadian geese went by, noisy as a train. On the pond south of Stone Mountain, we saw one mottled duck. It was gone the next day. No ducks stayed on the pond this summer, and if mottled ducks were heading south, I can’t imagine why we saw just one.
• I’ve been watching for Ruby-throats at the hummingbird feeder. I haven’t seen any for a week. I saw one on Oct. 12 a couple of years ago. The date now strikes me as kind of late in the season, although that’s just a guess. Terry Johnson, a naturalist who lives in Central Georgia, says Ruby-throats travel about 23 miles a day as they head south.
• Source: Terry Johnson’s Backyard Wildlife Connection is here:
https://backyardwildlifeconnection.com
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