The sun is shining. Just looking out there it doesn't seem too bad. Then you step out and find out the wind has teeth and the sun has little strength these days. It has been a rough fall. Either rain, or clouds, or colder than normal temperatures. The wind has stripped away the fall color, except a few solid oaks that will hang on until the spring. The grasses, after a really wet year, maintained it's green color far longer than normal. Finally after the frost have hit, they are browning and drying out.

Flocks of birds come and go. Robins and bluebirds have still been seen around as late as last week. Juncos filter through from their summer homes in the far north. The sandhill cranes are flocking up, in the National Crane Refuge by Little Falls, and other places, but you can still occasionally hear them calling in the fields.

Geese and ducks are starting their journeys to warmer climates, it seems like they should have been passing by already, but the cooler temps have fooled us. Their time is still to come.

I have been feeding chickadees and blue jays at my feeder, with a fair share going to a chipmunk. Suet attracts the woodpeckers, including the pileated. Juncos come through and dig through the leaves for seeds.

Hawks soar overhead. They sit on the electric poles, and the tops of trees, always looking for the next meal. The next meal is most likely a rodent, seen from a vantage point and swooped down on.

There is a bald eagle that sits in a tree by the corner. There was a roadkill deer in the ditch nearby, but that has long been devoured. Still it sits there. Waiting. I feel like I am also waiting. Waiting for the dry days of August, the sunny, cooler days of September, the shorter, but still bright October landscapes. Their time has passed. Now I must wait and see what November does. Short days, cold winds, sullen skies. But since nothing is as it seems, perhaps it will also fools us. It could be warm, bright, and leave us eating turkey in short sleeves and flip flops. Welcome to November. Get out there and enjoy it, dress appropriately, and put your face to the sun...