A cold front followed by gentle northwest winds triggers many migratory birds to leave; look for hawks above the ridges, songbirds in the woods / New bumblebee queens winter over in deserted mouse burrows; the rest of the colony dies / Cook the shaggy mane mushrooms (Coprinus comatus), now found in grass or along roadsides, as quickly as possible after picking. They are in the group called “inky caps,” because they dissolve into black goo as they age

The leaves of Virginia creeper, a high-climbing vine, are among the first to turn red / Young kestrels are heading south – ahead of their parents / Honeybees are gathering goldenrod nectar / Moths of the hemlock looper will be on the wing from now until the end of the month / It is quieter in fields and woods, now that fall migration is underway / Early signs of the rut among white-tailed deer, with bucks establishing dominance / New England asters are blooming

Hairy woodpeckers are eating some fruits, including poison ivy berries, which now are ripening / Crows are collecting and stashing acorns. They can carry several at a time in a pouch behind the lower bill / Blue jays eat insect infested acorns first, caching the rest for later. Weevils in acorns are a welcome source of protein / Indian pipes – colorless, saprophytic plants of deep shade – are turning their waxlike flowers upwards, and the seeds are ripening

The usually solitary porcupine is on the prowl, looking for a mate / The sulphur shelf fungus, Polyporus sulphureaus, is fruiting on hard- and softwoods. The surface of the pores is bright, sulphur yellow; the upper surface is a pinkish orange / Dry days will cause milkweed pods to open, releasing streams of fluffy parachutes and seeds / Whitetail bucks tear away the velvet on their antlers and polish them by thrashing them against shrubs and branches