The Glory and Sadness of Fall …

“October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came –
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.”
~ George Cooper (October’s Party)

Fall in Minnesota is a glorious time. The woods are a glow with colors, alive with animals preparing for winter and a multitude of traveling birds. The pesky bugs are basically gone, we enjoy temperate weather great for evening campfires and the forest smells are warm.

This year I have had to glimpse Fall from my windows. Thankfully, I am blessed with big windows and a 360º view of my woods, a lake, and all the critters that visit it. The birds are flocking. A few days ago I was surprised to find a huge flock of robins and flickers together enjoying the bird bath and freshly cut grassy areas of my yard. I have a new visitor, a red fox. He walks through my yard every day like he is on a mission. He does not stop to explore or sniff around like my camera and I would appreciate, but when he does I will post a picture.

Early morning in the Fall woods is an especially magical time. Yesterday morning was exceptional. A cool morning with a light fog rising off the lake where two swans were swimming. A flock of very noisy geese flying over several times. Circling and honking to each other as if they were searching for the perfect spot to take a rest and arguing about it. Two deer walking down the path to the lake and eating the still green plants that can be found there. And, later in the day, a multitude of ducks puddling in the lake.

There are several critters that are definitely not wanted and causing me some grief these days. The squirrels seem to be in a destructive mode … finding a way into the vent on my fireplace and shredding things on my porch for nesting materials. A snoopy skunk who decided to check out my porch the other night. When I turned on the outside light to scare away what I thought were raccoons, to my surprise it was a skunk. He was scared by the light and instead of just running away decided to leave a dose of his scent behind.

Fall is also hunting season. Hunters are wandering in the woods on foot and all-terrain vehicles. Animals are skiddish, running, hiding, bounding up out of ditches into cars. Gunshots echo through the trees. I have mixed feelings about the hunting. When done in a respectful, old-fashioned way I can see that it is a sport and even needed to control populations. But, so often hunting practices among the visitors (and some locals) to the area is far from sport. The invasion of these hunting strangers at times is destructive.

When I first started blogging, I wrote a post on bears, food, and hunting … specifically, bear-baiting. It is a practice I find detestable and as far from sport as you can get. However, it is legal in this State and the way bears are hunted. I only bring this up in a second post because sadness is filling the bear loving community. Hope, the bear cub so many of us seen born live on the internet and watched grow during her first year is dead. A hunter shot her when she visited a bear-baiting site alone.

Click here for the daily updates and Hope’s story. (Picture from the Bear Study 2010 daily updates)

Many of you probably heard about her death as it made the National news. You may have even wondered where my post on it was since I had blogged about Hope so often in the past. The fact is that her death has left me speechless and sad .. I don’t know what to say about it. Hope was a special bear that was teaching the world so much about the lives of bears, dispelling the scary stories and replacing them with a humanitarian view. We lost more than a small bear, we lost an educational opportunity. (My other post on how to live with bears)
Discussion show that people are mostly sad and full of questions. What if that feisty little bear would have had a research collar that would have offered a small amount of protection like her mother Lily does? … what if she did not wander off alone? … what if the hunting laws were different? What ifs are not an answer … it is too late, it happened. However, the what ifs and all the public concerns may help lead us to changes.

The Fall Season presents us with a contradictory thoughts and emotions because it is an in-between time, it is a doorway ending one season and beginning another. It is a beautiful, shockingly glorious time of year offering us bright colors, a variety of wildlife, and wonderful weather. It is also signals an end. It pushes us to move into the cold, dark, whiteness of winter. I feel fortunate this year that I have the extra time to rejoice in its spectacular departure in a blaze of colorful glory.

(FYI: I have finally caught up with the Photo Challenges I missed while in the hospital, check out my pictures here.)

“Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of maturity; but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance. What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the meaning of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?”
~ Hal Borland

~ by bearyweather on October 2, 2011.