Feels Like Fall.

8-20-24 VERMONT: A cold, gusty wind has blown us into fall today, it’s in the fifties. Suburban Energy was here today to service the furnaces. Tomorrow, the 21st, will see the sun halfway back to the Equator at about 12° North latitude, and a month from now it will be at the Equator and Fall begins. For now, it’s supposed to warm up by the weekend.

Today I saw one monarch caterpillar on the swamp milkweed by the pond, Asclepias incarnata. It was pretty big, but not big enough to go to chrysalis phase yet. It is the first one I have seen this year. I had almost given up hope of seeing them here. Maybe it’s the first of many.

The game cam caught a blue heron leaving the lower pond. The heron flies with his neck folded back in an “S” shape. This is one of the differences between herons, egrets and storks. The storks fly with their necks extended.

New blooms: Siberian catmint, mint.

A game cam pic of the blue heron with neck bent back and legs extended.

The blue heron taking off. The legs are still down and the neck not bent back yet.

A stork in flight with the neck extended. This shot is from our trip to Morocco.

A monarch caterpillar on milkweed.

Lobelia volunteer in the bed below the deck.

A volunteer Siberian catmint growing in the brook between the ponds. I saw it a few weeks ago, but I just ID'd it today.