Trees’ turning leaves mean change on way

In the room where I sit to write, a second-story makeshift office at home, there are two windows. One looks out over a road and the neighbor's house, bracketed by two large silver maples.

As long as I've lived in this house, these two trees have offered the first intimations of autumn. They always turn before any others in the neighborhood. It's no different this year. In just a handful of places -- the tips of a few branches -- the one on the corner is turning bright red. Behind the house, the other maple has just started transitioning to brilliant yellows and oranges.

I always look to them to tell me if I should start getting excited for fall. As usual, their timing is impeccable. Today, Sept. 21, as I write this, summer officially gives up the ghost.

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In Richmond's Forest Hill Park, where I walk my dogs, I noticed a dogwood beginning to change colors the other day. It didn't beat my neighbor's trees to the punch, but it was close. I stopped to look at it for a while. All around the forest was green, but it was well on its way to a deep amber. What message did it get that the others haven't yet? How does it know what it knows?

Later that day, I came back to the park on my mountain bike with a friend. As we passed a small cedar tree, he pointed out where a whitetail buck had rubbed off much of the bark. Three times in the week before that ride, I'd seen an eight-pointer in the park. Maybe it was his rub. I've read that big bucks tend to make rubs first, and he had quite a rack. Maybe he figured it was time to scrape the velvet off his antlers.

For a hunter, seeing a rub or a buck in the woods right now is as much a sign of fall as leaves changing colors for the average nature lover. It adds to an already palpable anticipation of hunting season. Now's the time to scout whatever land he or she will be hunting; to clean the equipment and make sure it's working properly; to make sure it's sighted in and the skills are there for an ethical shot.

Another rite of fall for many hunters is preparing their hunt club for the upcoming season. A friend and I joined a hunt club in Prince Edward County, and we spent part of a recent Saturday clearing dirt roads of overhanging branches, learning the lay of the land, looking for deer signs and making mental notes.

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The past few days, you didn't need to be a hunter or even a tree-lover to notice that change is afoot. You needed only to step outside. Mornings when the temperature hovers around 60 just beg to be spent on a porch with a cup of coffee in hand. The humidity isn't totally gone yet, but it's on its way. For the northern-born among us, that alone is reason for celebration.

Some mornings, I'll forego the porch and take a Thermos of coffee and my camera down to the river with my dogs. If I get there early enough, I'm treated to an eerie fog, as cooler air condenses above the still-warm river. A month or so later, that same shot will be ablaze in red, orange and gold.

My brotherand sister-in-law have the right idea. In a few weeks, they'll pack up their sons, ages 5 and 3, and head west to the mountains near Charlottesville. They'll pick apples, go on hayrides, peruse craft vendors and listen to local musicians, then head to a nearby campground for a fire, s'mores and a night under the stars -- all while watching mountain forests change into their autumn clothes.

For these reasons and many others, fall has long been my favorite Virginia season. The days grow short, the nights crisp and then cold. Critters of all kinds prepare for winter. Humans do the same. It always seems like it's over too soon. Now's the time to start taking advantage.

Contact Andy Thompson at (804) 649-6579