The Doldrums Commence

Well, the first frost has frosted, the Juncos have arrived, and the orange on the trees is shading towards brown. Fall is officially on the decline, and winter has to be just around the corner. It's going to be another long, slow countdown to spring. Perhaps longer and slower than usual this year, since I'll be impatiently waiting not just for migrant warblers and green growing things but the dragonfly emergence... kind of feel like I was cheated this year, picking up dragonflies so late. I barely got to survey anywhere at all.

I've been plotting out some places that might be good to go for odes next year. Luther Marsh and the rare property in Cambridge, if their respective owners don't mind. The Guelph Arboretum, as it's nice and close. A couple of the trails along the Speed River that I visited this year for work. Ideally I'd like to set up a regular visiting schedule so as to catch all of the different species that emerge through the year, but I know just how busy my evenings and weekends are during the summer, so that may actually be too ambitious a plan. Also, I'm hesitant to plan to go out wading the river by myself, it's not that I expect to fall in and drown but Murphy's Law implies that that would be the time for it to happen. And to really survey odes, sometimes you just need to get in the water.

Anyway. I have time to figure it out. Clearly I'll have to work a little harder to shift my gears back over to birds for the winter; getting stuck on insects isn't going to do me any good. The winter finch forecast didn't have a lot of northerners coming into Southern Ontario for the cold months, but there's always a few interesting things to see. I just have to get off my butt and go out to find them.