The autumnal equinox is a very special time of the year. Autumn, Fall or Mabon signals the transition from summer to the cooler seasons. It is resplendent with all the earthy red, yellow, gold and brown colors of the changing leaves. It is a time to harvest and celebrate the bounty the earth has provided throughout the warm season. Equinox means equal daylight and darkness. After today the nights will be longer than the days until the Vernal Equinox.
Here are a couple of "corn husk" dolls that I made for the autumn equinox. Consistent with Iroquois legend and practice the dolls have no face.
Brother Skunk and I have been dancing around each other all week when I go get the paper. Now that the days are getting shorter, it is not quite sunrise when I walk out to the the mailbox and Brother Skunk is still out foraging. Since there was no paper today, I grabbed my video camera and caught Brother Skunk still out and about. The video is not very good because of the low light, but you can see him scampering around.
Skunks are generally nocturnal and begin foraging at sunset. Skunks are omnivorous and help keep the rodent population in check. They often travel five to ten miles within their territory at night looking for field mice and other small rodents as well as lizards, frogs, birds, eggs, garbage, acorns, and fallen fruit. They also dig for insects, especially beetles, larvae, and earthworms. Their diet includes black widow spiders and scorpions. Being carrion eaters, they help keep roadways and neighborhoods clean. An estimated 70 percent of a skunk's diet consists of insects considered harmful to humans.
Some of the best advice that I ever received was "... never wrestle a skunk. You come out smelling bad even when you win." Fortunately, Brother Skunk hasn't made me smell bad - yet, but I'm not inclined to wrestle with him either!
The Autumnal Equinox is in a little over a week away. As noted the bullbats and other birds are starting to move, and Mr Squirrel is down at the walnut trees getting ready for the coming seasons. I guess we need to get in the fall mood also.
This evening I noticed Bullbats were migrating. I have always referred to "common nighthawks" as bullbats. You can see them migrating around the first of September when dove season opens. They winter in South America. Their migration is like Labor Day signaling the end of summer and the beginning of fall. The weather still says its summer, but as the days grow shorter you know that fall is getting close.
Going from the watering hole in the front yard to the backyard you can find wild turkeys grazing on the hillside. These are few of the some two dozen in the rafter that roosts in the woods across the road. Supposedly Ben Franklin wanted to make wild turkeys our national bird. Like the bald eagle, they have really made a comeback and are probably more plentiful now than ever.
My whiskey barrel, pitcher pump is the local watering hole and bird bath for all the birds in the neighborhood. I sit on my front porch and watch the bluebirds, goldfinches, robins, sparrows, etc., come in for a drink. Here is a dove getting a drink after filling up with grout from the driveway. Occasionally, a squirrel will climb up and get a drink. I have to clean and refill the barrel about twice a week. The little honey locust growing next to the barrel I started from a seed that I picked up at my vascular surgeons's office a couple of years ago.
I suppose its the druid in me that has planted over 150 trees on my 5 little acres of paradise over the past 30 years. There was only one old apple tree when I first moved here. Now there are lots of mature shade trees plus nuts, fruits and ornamentals of all sorts. Thirty some trees are decorated with birthhouses of different colors and seven are animated with tree faces as shown.
Posts
