Eastern wood-pewees are heading south. They sing well past the breeding season, right up until they depart / Timber rattlesnakes are returning to their hibernacula to lounge in the autumn sun before turning in for the winter / Shaggy manes will fruit if the weather is cool and wet / Mourning cloak butterflies emerge from their chrysalises. They overwinter as adults and may be flying next spring before the snow melts / The fall warbler show is in full swing

Jack-in-the-pulpits may be changing gender. The size of the fall corm determines whether it will be a Jack or a Jill next spring / The rusty red look of black locust leaves is probably the result of feeding by locust leafminer larvae earlier in the summer / Snapping turtle eggs are hatching. Most hatchlings will head for water; some will overwinter where they hatch / Coopers hawks are heading south, picking off mourning doves and smaller birds on the way

Blue jays are planting acorns, but only sound ones, and often these are carried several hundred feet from the parent tree / Muskrats may or may not store food for winter. Those that do are hard at work packing their burrows and lodges with arrowhead (duck potato) bulbs / Bees are gathering nectar and pollen from goldenrods / Flickers are restless and gathered in flocks; look for these plump, brightly colored woodpeckers stalking ants on lawns and greens

Woodchucks head for their winter quarters: grass-lined burrows deep enough to stay above freezing / Chipping sparrows that nested farther north are passing through on their way to the southern states / Pine siskins are nomads and their distribution depends on the availability of food, mostly the seeds of conifers. They may be abundant in a good seed year / Crows migrate and ravens don’t, though ravens may wander long distances, usually on a southerly course