The end of fall

We have been treated to more than two months of fall this year, so I have no complaints about the weather. But this last week marked the end of the color, as we now pass into the drab browns, grays, and soon white that will dominate the landscape until next spring. So, a few parting shots of the end of fall...taken along some of my favorite jogging routes.



An Amur Maple understory (this is an extremely fast-growing introduced maple (from Asia). At least they have very attractive fall foliage.

This mixed deciduous and pine forest was the view across a small stream.

And this was the view of the reflection of those trees in the very still stream water.

Sort of disorienting, isn't it?

And finally, the last tree to light up, even later than the oaks, must be the Norway Maples planted in residential areas. This is probably a horticultural variant of the tree that is native to central and eastern Europe and Asia. I only realized just how popular this tree is in residential gardens when they all simultaneously changed color during the past two weeks.

It has a very wide leaf with smoother and rounder edges than our native maples, and the leaves seem to be a very uniform solid yellow with very little orange or red in them. I assume that means they are full of xanthophyll (yellow) photo pigments which don't show until the chlorophyll has disappeared.

I'll certainly miss my colorful walks in the woods. Time to get out the snowshoes.

4 and 20 Blackbirds

Well, not only blackbirds, but grackles, descended in a large flock (maybe 100 birds), some concentrating on spilled seed on the ground, others attacking the feeders to displace even more seed onto the ground.

Males jockeyed for position on the feeders.

There was a noticeable pecking order: male grackles over male red-winged blackbirds, over lowly females of either species, who fed almost exclusively on the ground and in the wildflower garden. Grackles aggressively dominated the suet feeders and tried to fit their big wide bodies on the seed feeders desiged for chickadees.

Blackbirds have lost their glossy black exterior and are brown instead, resembling the female plumage, but still have their bright red and yellow wing patches, which they flare out when trying to displace another bird.

Grackles haven't lost any of their brilliant breeding colors, because they have iridescent feathers. There is quite a range of color on the males, from the brilliant light blue on their heads, to the deep purple on their backs, and brown on the sides. Getting pecked by that long saber of a bill must really hurt.

Male grackles were quite aggressive toward one another at the feeders, as well as the blackbirds, as illustrated below. It's clear who the top dog is.

Does this look like a scene from "the Birds"? It doesn't really capture the moment accurately because there were probably five times that many birds, and they were all squawking continuously.

Forming a huge flock like this in the fall is typical in migratory birds. They get the advantage of many eyes to find food and to detect and ward off predators, but with such a feeding hierarchy you wonder if the bottom of the pecking order really gets enough food to make the migration.

Cold Goldfinch

This has been the longest and nicest fall weather I can remember since we moved to Minnesota. But we now have reminders every morning of the cold weather on its way as the temperatures dip into the 30s overnight. I was surprised to find lethargic Goldfinches in the garden on two of these nippy mornings this week; they sat quietlly allowing me to approach within a few feet. Their plumage was so fluffed out they looked like little round puffballs.

I found this one sitting on the ground near the bird bath I was filling. Of course I didn't have a camera with me, but he/she was still there when I went back with the camera in hand.

Could those feathers get any more fluffy?

The bird appeared healthy enough, with its alert eyes following me as I walked around it. It moved into the sun a few minutes later, and then flew off into the weeds near the bird feeder.

Fall weather is hard on all us homeotherms, as we try to rev up the metabolism that keeps us warm. Acclimation to cold typically takes a few weeks as increased thyroid hormone helps us increase heat production and changes in blood flow to the skin reduce heat loss. Decreased hours of daylight here in the far north means less time for animals to fatten up during the day to fuel the metabolic furnace overnight. Maybe these little guys (they only weigh 12-15 grams, about the same as a fast food ketchup package) just run out of energy on those colder nights and need more time to rewarm during the morning. I know mortality is much higher in the fall than in the middle of winter for these small birds. Once they get fully acclimated to cold they can withstand temperatures as low as -70 F for a few hours, and -40 F for 8-12 hours (based on studies done by a colleague in Michigan many years ago).

How different these drab winter plumaged birds are from their golden summer color. Here are two Goldfinches sitting in the same part of the garden, on the stems of Purple Coneflower. (click on any of the photos to enlarge to full size)