A Season Comes to an End

The birds have stopped singing in Northern New Jersey. It felt like yesterday they arrived and blessed us with their sermon of song. Spring turned into Summer, and now…now the weather is starting to feel like Autumn.

I hear the buzz of crickets in the morning and close the window, and keep the chill out of the bedroom. I see the birds flittering about in the morning, but they’re silent. There’s no need to sing anymore, they did their duty attracting mates and raising young. Their focus in the waning weeks of Summer is to prepare for Winter.

Soon, I’ll see my old friends migrate through my beloved Highlands. I’ll wait for the White-throated Sparrow to visit the feeder again, on its way South to warmer climes. I’ll gauge when the first Dark-eyed Junco arrives, bringing any news of the kind of Winter we could expect.

One season ends and another begins, and I am lucky to have a front-row seat to this play. The ebb and flow of Nature and our lives.