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Senses of Fall
One of the classroom programs Audubon educators teach is Animal Senses, a program about how different animals use their senses to find food and to stay safe. As I write this, I am sitting in an elementary school faculty room, having just taught this class, and senses are on my mind. I am also looking out the window at the bright red leaves of a maple tree that has given me a thought experiment. Can I narrow down each of the five senses to one single input that epitomizes fall for me. The one thing I hear, see, smell, taste, and feel that instantly lets me know fall is here.
Naming the Rain
it was all rain, it wasn’t the same kind of rain. Sometime it was a furious onslaught that obliterated views, while other times it was just barely rain at all, seemingly suspended as if water and air were one, heavier than mist, but not quite falling rain. At times I could see on the horizon where it danced in curtains, swirling and descending, rising up to come drifting down.
And we all know that there is calm rain, when it comes straight down in a steady form; angry rain that tears at leaves and roofs and rattles windows; sad rain that has a weight to it far greater than the water it carries. There is rain that comes off the lake (lake-effect rain, very descriptive), rain that comes from the south, rain that smells like salt, or smoke, or summer. Yet we have no words for that. It is all just ‘rain,’ with some adjectives or other description tacked on.
Boom or Bust
Oak trees produce acorns every year, but in some years they produce a lot. In other years they produce fewer acorns. A year where the majority of oaks in a region have more acorns than normal is called a mast year. Mast, in the botany world, is the fruit of trees and shrubs. Oaks have mast years every 2-7 years, depending on the species of oak trees.
Fall is a Devouring Beast
Fall creeps south like a devouring beast, rampaging over the hills and valleys and sending animals fleeing from its path. Tiny birds escape to the south in September, when the first hint of the fall beast’s arrival shows in the changing color of a few leaves here and there. Warblers and hummingbirds wing to a whole other continent to get away, some travelling over 1,000 miles to find a place that stays warm through the winter. Groundhogs fatten up till they look like furry balls of Jell-O with legs, running with jiggling and joggling bodies to their underground winter burrows. Chipmunks compete for the fall seed harvest, chipping loudly in the forest as they maneuver to store up the most acorns.
Katydid Memories
Everyone has certain sounds they gravitate towards, or that hold extra meaning to them. Some people revel in the song of their favorite bird, or the swish of long grass in the wind. Others may listen with reverie to the hooting of an owl or the distant yelps of a coyote in the dark.
There are many sounds I love in nature, but it’s the chorus of the katydid that grabs at my heartstrings. The ch-ch-ch sound of the males calling in late summer evenings and nights is a sign that the hot days of summer are nearly over and fall is on the way. It also instantly transports me back into memories of my childhood.
Extinction
In the Nature Center, we have a room full of dead birds. It’s a small room, off a corner of the live animal room on the first floor. The birds are the collection of Ralph Simpson, a self-taught naturalist from Warren, Pennsylvania. He collected and preserved most of the specimens in the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s. Shooting and collecting was still an acceptable way to study birds at the time.
A collection like this is impossible to create today because we now have legal protections for most wildlife. And the way we view the natural world and our role have changed. Many find this small room fascinating. There are warblers and songbirds, hawks and owls, shorebirds and ducks. There are over one hundred preserved birds. Looking at a bird that is still and up close rarely happens in the wild. And some of the birds in that room are no longer found in the wild.
Address
Audubon Community Nature Center
1600 Riverside Road
Jamestown, NY 14701
(716) 569-2345
info@auduboncnc.org
Hours and Admission
Nature Center Hours:
Monday - Saturday
10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Sunday
1:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Building Admission:
Members - Free
Non-member Adult (ages 16+) - $6
Non-member Child (ages 3 - 15) - $2
Children ages 2 and under - Free
Maximum cost for a Family - $15
Free admission to the Nature Center for SNAP/EBT cardholders.
Free admission for all on Sundays
Grounds and Outdoor Exhibits:
Open daily, year round from dawn to dusk free of charge
Thank you, Community Partners
Audubon Community Partners make a significant financial contribution each year because they believe that every child deserves the opportunity to have a real and healthy connection to nature.
Bruce and Juline Battler
Carnahan-Jackson Foundation
Chautauqua Region Community Foundation
Donna and Mark Hampton
Holmberg Foundation
Hultquist Foundation
Jessie Smith Darrah Fund
The Lenna Foundation
The Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation
Hal and Mary Conarro
Cummins Jamestown Engine Plant
Bob and Kathy Frucella
Kravitz Tree Service
Thomas Kuntz and Meredith Kuntz
Doug and Lamae McCullor
National Fuel Gas Company
Southern Chautauqua
Federal Credit Union
Weinberg Financial GroupCurt and Susie Westrom
Whirley-DrinkWorks!
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