November 23, 2025

Welcome to nearly the end of November, 2025!  How could this year go by so very fast?  Well, at least we have ONE more November week before we start mourning the whole year.  Don't cry now....  Here are some memories of the fall so far.  Up first, one from last week --  our Black (Eastern Gray) Squirrel on his fast track around the fence..  You can see that the leaves are almost all down in the yard.  This may be quite a short blog, I hope you'll forgive me!

It has seemed to be a very fast-paced Autumn.  Maybe I've now seen too many Falls and the memory of past ones is filling in that great slide show in my head.   On the other hand, it IS almost the end of November!   Here are the leaves that you saw last week lying all over the Pond.  I've had a good bit of raking to do in the past few weeks!  And here is a quick shot of one of those delightfully red male Cardinals.  Why am I seeing so few females?  Or does my camera have a male-detector feature that stops when the central character is just at its peak of redness??  Maybe it's just that my camera has a red-detector (sort of the McCarthy of spy devices) and that's why I zoom into the pictures of anything that bright!  I actually suspect it's that my aging eyes are missing some of the less-bright colors that try to puncture their way into my brain! 

Here is an Eastern Gray Squirrel that Chaim has named Larry the Squirrel.   What a face!  Second is that American Red Squirrel that I didn't see again this week.  

You're probably thinking, show us something new already!  Well, I could feed you that old chestnut about everything being new eventually, but will spare you that.  I actually did not see Red the Squirrel again this week.  

But that lovely little Boxelder Bug was around for a while.  I think I mentioned that these Bugs are a good sign of Fall (as if we needed any of that nowadays.  The second Bug is one of the Lacewings, which are also common in Fall.    What about the third Bug?  Better look again -- that is a Spider (count the legs), not a Bug.  Did this fool you?  I have to admit it fooled me too for a moment!

Did you just say, it isn't fair to show us so many pictures that aren't pictures of what we thought they were?   Well, sometimes those things just sneak in to test us, including me!  But I do feel just terrible when I do fool you, mostly because I first fooled myself!  Here is a picture I didn't understand until I counted the legs.  Yes, there are at least 4 legs on each side.  Is that a big smile on the face of #2?  No surprises in #4!   These are all Spiders!

Two more Spiders.  The second one was visiting the Nature Center one day.  If you think that was too many Spiders, take it up with our contingent from Perth Road.  If you are delighted and would like to identify one or both of  these, please let me know!   Third is NOT a spider.  It may be a Fly of genus Trichocera. 

It was a tough week - my allergies have driven me crazy, even though this is not supposed to be allergy season.  I'm about to run out of pictures.  Better to let you have a break (and me too) and think of what next week may bring (us closer to December for sure.)  Please enjoy your environment and look forward a couple of months.  You'll be glad!  Love, Martha