plonq | Summer's End

Although summer does not technically end for another week or so, we are usually into autumn weather by this point in September. This is why yesterday's high of 31° came as a bit of a surprise - though a bigger surprise was that it was still .7° short of the record for that date. Tomorrow is supposed to hit 27° with a chance of rain before we start settling down to more seasonal temperatures - though still a few degrees above normal for this time of year.

I was reading yesterday that we are seeing the strongest El Nino since they started measuring them, so it's possible this trend might continue through into winter.

It seemed like a waste to let such nice weather sneak past us unnoticed, so once we were done with our chores, we hopped into the car and drove up to Oak Hammock Marsh to take a leisurely walkabout. There were not as many birds as I have seen in earlier visits, though this late in the season the grasses and reeds are so high that the place could have been teeming with fowl and we'd have never seen them. The sun was warm, and the breeze was pleasant, so the lack of birds was not a damper on our visit.

The last time we were out here, there was an unobstructed view from this boardwalk, there were patches of ice on the water, and we ended up with a car full of ticks. No ice or ticks this time out.