October 20-26, 2024
Heading further into the frosty, leading edge of winter
This felt like a very quiet week with a mix of cloudy days, sunny days, and frosty mornings as things brown up and leaves start to fall.
Week in Review
In my ongoing observations of the changing seasons, what I've been watching this week has been the transition from gorgeous fall colors to falling leaves. I don't think we're quite there yet, but we're nearing that glorious day when a stiff wind sweeps down the valley to blow millions of leaves off the trees all at once—and I can't wait!
In the meantime, fall colors in the valley are still magical, especially on sunny days. I don't know if anyone else feels this, but autumn is such a bittersweet time of year. The days are so beautiful that it almost hurts, and at the same moment I think of all the places I didn't have time to see, or projects I didn't complete, over the summer, and it makes me a little sad.
But there's no denying the coming cold. Temperatures dropped to 25 degrees one night this week, with frost forming on leaves in the valley, and ice and snow appearing at higher elevations.
It's been interesting to spot the few insects that are still out despite the increasing cold—a single ant here, a passing dragonfly there, a lone grasshopper in the yard. And, at the same time, an exuberant expression of life in the clouds of mating mayflies. Insects never cease to amaze and mystify me!
We often see sparrows hopping around in the driveway this time of year and I've never thought much about it, until Dana Visalli did some brilliant detective work and discovered a fun little story. It turns out that many of these birds are eating the seeds of an extremely common weed called common knotgrass or prostrate knotweed (Polygonum aviculare). You wouldn't realize this plant produces a prolific number of seeds unless you looked at one under a microscope like Dana did.
Common knotgrass is abundant but inconspicuous. It looks like a plant that someone stepped on. Photos by David Lukas
Junco eating knotgrass seeds, and a microscope view of the seeds (scale is 1mm). Photos by Dana Visalli
Observation of the Week: Sowbugs
I didn't have space to mention this in last week's newsletter, but after a heavy dose of rain on the evening of October 15, I noticed huge numbers of sowbugs walking all over the ground.
Sowbugs are fascinating crustaceans, more closely related to lobsters than insects, that evolved (long ago!) to leave the ocean and live on land. However, in a nod to their aquatic origin, they still have gills under their bodies and need moisture, or high humidity, in order to breathe.
In a place like the Methow Valley, the need for moisture must greatly limit their activity. Between bone-dry summers and the freezing cold of winter, there are only a limited number of days when they can easily move about in search of mates and new homes—so it makes perfect sense they'd take advantage of a rainy evening to come out in such numbers.
Otherwise, they spend the rest of the year clustered together near pockets of damp ground. You might find one of these clusters if you turn over a board or lift a flowerpot, and if you don't put it back in place they may no longer be able to find a place to survive!
News Flash!
Just as I was getting ready to send off today's newsletter, someone posted some amazing photos of larches on the Nature Notes Facebook group. It looks like they're at their peak colors on Loup Loup summit right now! This would be a fantastic weekend to head up and see the show!
