Observations from Visit #3

I cannot begin to put into words how good it felt to return to my field on Sunday afternoon, October 9th. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous for the past two weeks. In fact, the temperature on Sunday around 5:30 pm, when I made my visit, was 77º, and the length of day was 11 hours 22 minutes. I cannot remember an October that has been nearly as nice as this. During this visit, sitting in my usual spot, I heard many birds chirping close by. In a very big way, the visit as a whole seemed to be all about the birds. There was not a second when I was there when I didn't hear any birds. There also seemed to be more  traffic on the road; the noises from the cars was much more noticeable than what I had originally remembered. It was also amazing to finally see the leaves beginning to change color. Right now, there are many beautiful shades of yellow and orange on the leaves that are still clinging to the trees. A lot of the leaves have fallen off the trees already, too, creating a carpet-like illusion on the ground. Another thing that really struck me while I was sitting there was in how very persistent the crickets seem to be this year. I can't remember a time this late in the season when they were still chirping in such full force. Maybe God wants to give all of us a taste of some extra summer weather that we couldn't quite appreciate in the same way during July and August when it was so warm. I will be very sad when this warm weather goes away for the season, but it will also be nice to experience some true fall temperatures.