The season is sliding through the end of summer and into the beginning of fall. The temperatures during the day are mostly still summer, but the nights are becoming fall cool. The sun no longer climbs so high in the sky at noon and each day it rises a couple of minutes later and sets a couple of minutes earlier. Nature’s colors are shifting, too — purples, yellows, and whites contrast with a green that’s dustier and no longer quite as brilliant as it was just weeks ago. Some of the smaller trees are definitely feeling the effects of the heat despite an unusually wet August, showing their stress in yellowed leaves. And the evening insect chorus is quieter, no longer quite so overwhelming. Fall isn’t here yet, but you can smell it coming. It’s time to get outside and enjoy the coming changes — they happen every day.

If you see something this month, will you share it with the 160 or so subscribers to the Kent CAC Nature Almanac? It’s easy — click here then scroll to the end of the page and fill in the form. (Your first observation might take a little while to show up since we need to manually process it to help keep “spam” to a minimum.) We’ll pick your observation up and assemble it with others for publication at the end of the month. Or, if you’d prefer, you can send your observations to almanac@kentcac.info. Either way works!

Beth Herr and Dave Ehnebuske