Academic literature on the topic 'Brown falcon'
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Journal articles on the topic "Brown falcon"
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Ellis, David H., Miguel D. Saggese, Alastair Franke, and Wayne Nelson. "Extreme color variation in the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) in Patagonia." El Hornero 35, no. 2 (December 1, 2020): 65–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.56178/eh.v35i2.390.
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From fieldwork begun in 1979 and continuing intermittently until the present, we show the range in variation in pigmentation of Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) native to the Patagonian region of South America. This variation nearly equals the full range in Peregrine Falcon color variation for all races worldwide. The pallid morph is paler than any other peregrine, and in extreme southern Patagonia, most dark or normal morph adults are as pale or paler than extremely pale arctic peregrines from northern Asia and North America. In the forests of the southern Andes Mountains, there are richly colored (i.e., with deep red-brown ventral background pigmentation) falcons that approach or equal the darkest peregrines anywhere. Some juvenile peregrines are more deeply red-brown ventrally than any other juveniles worldwide. Most important, we introduce the hypothesis that non-pallid adult color variants are largely segregated by habitat type. By inference, this suggests that adjacent ecotypes may represent different subspecies.
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Weatherly, R., D. J. Baker-Gabb, and N. J. Mooney. "Juvenile Plumage and Plumage Variation in the Brown Falcon Falco Berigora." Emu - Austral Ornithology 85, no. 4 (December 1985): 257–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mu9850257.
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McDonald, Paul G., Penny D. Olsen, and D. J. Baker-Gabb. "Territory fidelity, reproductive success and prey choice in the brown falcon, Falco berigora: a flexible bet-hedger?" Australian Journal of Zoology 51, no. 4 (2003): 399. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo02059.
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The brown falcon, Falco berigora, is one of Australia's most common and widespread raptors, inhabiting a broad array of habitats and most climatic zones across Australia. We monitored a large, marked population (44–49 pairs) over three annual breeding seasons in southern Victoria. Reproductive parameters such as clutch size and the duration of parental care were constant across years. However, there were marked differences in brood size and the proportion of pairs breeding. Both sexes of falcons were found to have high territory and mate fidelity, with only 10% of members of each sex changing territories during the study. Falcons were flexible in their choice of nest sites, using a variety of tree species and even isolated nest trees. Nest sites and territories were regularly distributed throughout the study area, with the density of the population the highest on record for this species. The diet of the population as a whole was very broad, but each pair predominantly specialised on either lagomorphs, small ground prey, small birds, large birds or reptiles. Individuals that changed territory within the study area also switched their diet according to the predominant land-use within the new territory and thus prey availability. We argue that, at the population level, broad dietary breadth, flexibility in choice of nest site, and a conservative, static breeding strategy allows the species to persist in a broad range of environments, possibly through 'bet-hedging'. At the individual level, changeable dietary specialisation, high territory fidelity, strong year-round territorial defence, confining breeding to years when individual conditions were favourable and adjusting brood sizes when required appear to be the main strategies enabling brown falcons to thrive under a variety of conditions.
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Hull, C. "A Comparison of the Morphology of the Feeding Apparatus in the Peregrine Falcon, Falco-Peregrinus, and the Brown Falcon, F-Berigora (Falconiformes)." Australian Journal of Zoology 39, no. 1 (1991): 67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo9910067.
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The jaw morphology of an 'attacking', specialist predator of birds, the peregrine falcon, Falcon peregrinus, and a 'searching' generalist, the brown falcon F. berigora, were compared. As a result of larger adducting muscles, and an increase in the rotational component of the force of muscles, F. peregrinus potentially has a stronger bite than F. berigora. Kinesis is reduced in F. peregrinus, with a consequent loss in dexterity and fine control. In contrast, F. berigora has a highly kinetic skull and a secondary articulation on the lower mandible, which permits great dexterity and rapid closing of the mandibles. These results establish a strong correlation between the foraging strategy, diet, and the morphology of these two species. They also imply that, as in many bird species, power and kinesis are not compatible within the jaw system.
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G. MCDonald, Paul, Penny D. Olsen, and Andrew Cockburn. "Weather dictates reproductive success and survival in the Australian brown falcon Falco berigora." Journal of Animal Ecology 73, no. 4 (July 2004): 683–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-8790.2004.00842.x.
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Bollen, Chris. "Breeding behaviour and diet of the Brown Falcon Falco berigora near Goulburn, New South Wales, in 2018." Australian Field Ornithology 36 (2019): 121–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.20938/afo36121123.
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Wood, Sharon R., Ken J. Sanderson, and Christopher S. Evans. "Perception of terrestrial and aerial alarm calls by honeyeaters and falcons." Australian Journal of Zoology 48, no. 2 (2000): 127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo99020.
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This study tested the responses to aerial and terrestrial alarm and distress calls in an avian predator, the brown falcon, Falco berigora, and two potential avian prey species, the New Holland honeyeater, Philidonyris novaehollandiae, and noisy miner, Manorina melanocephala. Calls were delivered from a computer system at intensities 5–20 dB above background, to birds held in large cages. All birds located the broad-band alarm and distress calls easily, but they had difficulty locating the narrow-band aerial alarm calls, although they were able to detect most of these. Aerial alarm calls thus reduce risk to the caller. The performance of raptors and songbirds was similar. This result suggests that there are no reliable differences in the auditory characteristics of avian predators and prey, as have been described in species from the Northern Hemisphere.
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McDonald, Paul G., and David Baker-Gabb. "THE BREEDING DIET OF DIFFERENT BROWN FALCON (FALCO BERIGORA) PAIRS OCCUPYING THE SAME TERRITORY OVER TWENTY YEARS APART." Journal of Raptor Research 40, no. 3 (September 2006): 228–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.3356/0892-1016(2006)40[228:tbdodb]2.0.co;2.
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McDonald, Paul G. "Variable plumage and bare part colouration in the Brown Falcon, Falco berigora: the influence of age and sex." Emu - Austral Ornithology 103, no. 1 (March 2003): 21–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mu02028.
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Zale, J., L. Freshour, S. Agarwal, J. Sorochan, B. H. Ownley, K. D. Gwinn, and L. A. Castlebury. "First Report of Rust on Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) Caused by Puccinia emaculata in Tennessee." Plant Disease 92, no. 12 (December 2008): 1710. http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/pdis-92-12-1710b.
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In the spring of 2007, switchgrass accessions and cultivars Alamo, Kanlow, SL-93-2001, and NSL 2001-1 (lowland), Blackwell (upland), and Grenville, Falcon, and Miami (unknown ploidy levels) were sown at the East Tennessee Research and Extension Center in Knoxville for evaluation and controlled hybridizations. In July and August of 2007, uredinia were observed primarily on the upper leaf surfaces, and to a lesser extent on the undersides of leaves, of switchgrass cvs. Alamo, Blackwell, Grenville, Falcon, Kanlow, and Miami. Uredinia were observed on all cultivars and accessions in 2008. Dimensions of spores are reported as mean ± standard deviation. Uredinia were epiphyllous, adaxial, caulicolous, oblong, and the color of cinnamon brown. Urediniospores were globose to broadly ellipsoid, 26.0 ± 3.0 × 23.2 ± 2.4 μm, with a wall that was cinnamon brown, 1.5 to 2.0 μm thick, finely echinulate with three to four equatorial pores, corresponding to Puccinia emaculata Schw. (3). Abundant teliospores were isolated from Grenville, Falcon, and Blackwell, with fewer teliospores isolated from Alamo. Telia were epiphyllous, adaxial, and caulicolous, densely crowded to scattered, oblong, and dark brown to black. Teliospores were dark brown, two-celled, ellipsoid to oblong, 33.6 ± 4.8 μm long with an apical cell width of 17.5 ± 1.2 μm and basal cell width of 15.9 ± 2.5 μm. Teliospore walls were 1.5 to 2.0 μm wide at the sides and 4 to 6 μm apically. Pedicels were brown or colorless and up to approximately one length of the teliospore, 28.5 ± 7.4 μm. Teliospore morphology confirmed the identification of this rust as P. emaculata (3), which has been reported to infect upland and lowland populations of switchgrass (2). A 2,109-bp fragment containing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) 1, 5.8S, ITS 2, and D1/D2 region of the large subunit ribosomal DNA was sequenced for a specimen on ‘Falcon’ (GenBank Accession No. EU915294 and BPI No. 878722) from two overlapping PCR fragments amplified with primers PRITS1F (L. A. Castlebury, unpublished data) and ITS4B (1) for one fragment and Rust5.8SF (L. A. Castlebury, unpublished data) and LR7 (4) for the second fragment. No sequences of P. emaculata were available for comparison; however, BLAST searches of the ITS resulted in hits to P. asparagi DC (527 of 576, 91%) and P. andropogonis Schw. (523 of 568, 92%) placing this fungus in the genus Puccinia Pers. The alternate hosts of this rust are species of the Euphorbiaceae (2,3), which are ubiquitous in this area although the aecial stage has not been observed. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. emaculata on switchgrass in Tennessee. Given the highly susceptible response of certain varieties of switchgrass to this rust in field plots, reduction in total biomass in large acreages is likely and long-standing fields of this perennial grass will compound the problem. References: (1) M. Gardes and T. D. Bruns. Mol. Ecol. 2:113, 1993. (2) D. M. Gustafson et al. Crop Sci. 43:755, 2003. (3) P. Ramachar and G. Cummins. Mycopathol. Mycol. Appl. 25:7, 1965. (4) R. Vilgalys and M. Hester. J. Bacteriol. 172:4238, 1990.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Brown falcon"
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McDonald, Paul G. "Reproductive success, dimorphism and sex allocation in the brown falcon Falco berigora /." View thesis entry in Australian Digital Theses Program, 2003. http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20041111.100436/index.html.
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McDonald, Paul, and Paul McDonald@latrobe edu au. "Reproductive success, dimorphism and sex allocation in the brown falcon Falco berigora." The Australian National University. Faculty of Science, 2003. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20041111.100436.
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This project describes various aspects of the breeding ecology and behaviour of the brown falcon Falco berigora, a common but poorly study Australian raptor. In particular it examines (a) the main influences on reproductive success; (b) tests predictions of theories proposed to explain the evolution and maintenance of sexual size dimorphism (RSD; females the larger sex) in raptors; and (c) investigates sex allocation patterns in the light of current sex ratio and parental investment theory. The study was conducted between July 1999 and June 2002 approximately 35 km southwest of Melbourne, at the Western Treatment Plant (WTP), Werribee (38°0S 144°34E) and surrounds, a total area of approximately 150 km2.¶
· In all plumage and bare part colouration of 160 free-flying falcons was described. The majority of variation in these characters could be attributed to distinct age and/or sex differences as opposed to previously described colour morphs.¶
· Nestling chronology and development is described and formulae based on wing length derived for determining nestling age. An accurate field-based test for determining nestling sex at banding age is also presented.¶
· Strong sex role differentiation was apparent during breeding; typical of falcons females performed most parental duties whilst males predominantly hunted for their brood and partner. Based on observations of marked individuals, both sexes of brown falcons aggressively defended mutual territories throughout the year, with just 10% of each sex changing territories during the entire study period. Males performed territorial displays more frequently than females, the latter rarely displaying alone.¶
· The diet of the population as a whole was very broad, but within pairs both sexes predominantly specialised on either lagomorphs, small ground prey (e.g. house mice Mus musculus), small birds, large birds or reptiles, according to availability.¶
· Reproductive parameters such as clutch size and the duration of parental care were constant across all years, however marked annual differences in brood size and the proportion of pairs breeding were evident.¶
· Age was an important influence upon reproductive success and survival, with immature birds inferior to adults in both areas. However, interannual differences were by far the most influential factor on breeding success and female survival. Heavy rain downpours were implicated as the main determinant of reproductive success and adult female mortality in a population largely devoid of predation or human interference.¶
· Female-female competition for territorial vacancies was intense; larger adult females were more likely to be recruited and once breeding fledged more offspring. In contrast, male recruitment and breeding success was unrelated to either body size or condition indices, although smaller immature males were more likely to survive to the next breeding season. This directional selection is consistent only with the predictions of the intrasexual competition hypothesis.¶
· Despite marked RSD (males c. 75% of female body mass), throughout the nestling phase female nestlings did not require greater quantities of food than their male siblings. However, female parents fed their last-hatched sons but not daughters, resulting in the complete mortality of all last-hatched female offspring in focal nests. Given last-hatched nestlings suffered markedly reduced growth rates and female, but not male, body size is important in determining recruitment patterns, the biased allocation amongst last-hatched offspring is likely to reflect differing benefits associated with investing in small members of each sex, consistent with broad-scale Trivers-Willard effects. Recruitment patterns support this, with surviving last-hatched females, in contrast to males, unable to gain recruitment into the breeding population upon their return to the study site.¶
Thus selection appears to act at the nestling, immature and adult stages to maintain RSD in the focal population. Larger females were favoured in the nestling phase, at recruitment and once breeding had greater reproductive success. In contrast, selection favoured a reduction or maintenance of immature male size as smaller birds had a greater chance of survival in the year following recruitment than their larger counterparts; thereafter male size was unimportant. Together, this directional selection favouring increased female competitive ability is consistent only with the predictions of the intrasexual competition hypothesis, which appears the most probable in explaining the maintenance and perhaps evolution of RSD in raptors.
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McDonald, Paul. "Reproductive success, dimorphism and sex allocation in the brown falcon Falco berigora." Phd thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/47695.
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This project describes various aspects of the breeding ecology and behaviour of the brown falcon Falco berigora, a common but poorly study Australian raptor. In particular it examines (a) the main influences on reproductive success; (b) tests predictions of theories proposed to explain the evolution and maintenance of sexual size dimorphism (RSD; females the larger sex) in raptors; and (c) investigates sex allocation patterns in the light of current sex ratio and parental investment theory. The study was conducted between July 1999 and June 2002 approximately 35 km southwest of Melbourne, at the Western Treatment Plant (WTP), Werribee (38°0’S 144°34’E) and surrounds, a total area of approximately 150 km2.¶ ...
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LIAO, MIAO-ZHEN, and 廖妙珍. "Toxic effects of buprofezin on the small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus (Falln)(Hoomoptera : Delphacidat)." Thesis, 1991. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89757356065153560498.
Full textBooks on the topic "Brown falcon"
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Wurster, Charles F. DDT Wars. Oxford University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190219413.001.0001.
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DDT Wars is the untold inside story of the decade-long scientific, legal and strategic campaign that culminated in the national ban of the insecticide DDT in 1972. The widespread misinformation, disinformation and mythology of the DDT issue are corrected in this book. DDT contamination had become worldwide, concentrating up food chains and causing birds to lay thin-shelled eggs that broke in the nests. Populations of many species of predatory and fish-eating birds collapsed, including the American Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon and Brown Pelican. Their numbers recovered spectacularly in the decades following the ban. During the campaign DDT and five other insecticides were found to cause cancer in laboratory tests, which led to bans of these six pesticides by international treaty in 2001. This campaign produced lasting changes in American pesticide policies. The legal precedents broke down the court "standing" barrier, forming the basis for the development of environmental law as we know it today. This case history represents one of the greatest environmental victories of recent decades. DDT is still "controversial" because it has been deceptively interjected into the "climate wars." This campaign was led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), founded in 1967 by ten citizens, most of them scientists, volunteers without special political connections or financial resources. Their strategy was to take environmental problems to court. There were many setbacks along the way in this exciting and entertaining story. The group was often kicked out of court, but a few determined citizens made a large difference for environmental protection and public health. Author Charles Wurster was one of the leaders of the campaign. The first six years of EDF history are described as it struggled to survive. Now EDF is one of the world's great environmental advocacy organizations defending our climate, ecosystems, oceans and public health.
Book chapters on the topic "Brown falcon"
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Lemus, Nery Gabriel. "On Fallen Nature and the Two Cities." In Black and Brown in Los Angeles, 341–45. University of California Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520275591.003.0014.
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"13. On Fallen Nature and the Two Cities." In Black and Brown in Los Angeles, 341–45. University of California Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/9780520956872-016.
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Falcis, Noelle Marie. "15 Shade of Brown Noelle Marie Falcis, Filipina American, 27." In Whiter, 119–24. New York University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479832477.003.0018.
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Money, Nicholas P. "6. Fungi and decomposition." In Fungi: A Very Short Introduction, 84–97. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199688784.003.0006.
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Fungi that do not form supportive or parasitic relationships with plants and animals feed on the debris of life. These are saprotrophs that decompose dead roots, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, twigs, branches, upright tree trunks, and fallen logs. Wood is decomposed by a combination of white rot and brown rot basidiomycetes that produce mushrooms. Other fungi grow on animal faeces and decompose the tissues of dead invertebrates and vertebrates. Fungi also clear up our mess, breaking down every natural product used in a lifetime of consumerism and destroying synthetic materials made by industry. ‘Fungi and decomposition’ describes the saprotrophic fungi and considers their significance in the global carbon cycle.
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Milward, John. "Grievous Angels." In Americanaland, 154–67. University of Illinois Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5622/illinois/9780252043918.003.0012.
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This chapter recounts how, to promote the album GP (released in 1973), Gram Parsons assembled a band that he called the Fallen Angels. Phil Kaufman, whom Parsons had met through the Rolling Stones, was the tour's road manager. However, the tour's opening night in Colorado was a musical mess. The album did not crack the Top 200, but it attracted influential fans. When the band played Oliver's in Boston, a young writer approached Parsons with a poem that he thought might make a good song: “Return of the Grievous Angel.” Meanwhile, by the time Joni Mitchell returned to Los Angeles from British Columbia, David Geffen's Asylum Records had released hit albums by the Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Mitchell (For the Roses). Linda Ronstadt, the sweetheart of the Troubadour, followed her hit-making years with successful albums of pop standards and Mexican folk music.
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Wohl, Ellen. "December: Saving the Dammed." In Saving the Dammed. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190943523.003.0015.
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At the nadir of the year, this is how morning comes to the beaver meadow. Just as the sun rises above the eastern horizon, a flush of pale rose lights the snow newly fallen on the highest peaks. The beaver meadow remains in shadow, silent but for the creek flowing quietly between its rims of ice. The air temperature is well below freezing and frost whitens the pine needles like a dark-haired person starting to go gray. Wisps and sheets of snow flag off the summits in the steady wind. Over the course of a few minutes, the summit snow warms from pale rose to faint orange and then a rich, warm gold that also lights the rock outcrops at lower elevations. The wind reaches the beaver meadow before the sunlight, coming in abrupt blasts that shake loose the little tufts of snow remaining on the pine boughs. The wind sends the snow crystals slaloming across the ice on the creek with a dry, skittering sound like that of blowing sand. Before long, the meadow is submerged in a continual rushing sound created by wind gusting through the pines up slope, along the valley walls. The lateral moraine to the south keeps the beaver meadow in shadow until 9:30 a.m. Nothing is so slow as waiting for the warmth of sunlight on a cold winter morning. When the sunlight does reach the meadow, it brings out the colors of water, ice, grasses, and willows. Flowing portions of the creek change from gray to orange brown. The snow reflects the light in a painfully intense glare broken by the deep, long shadows that everything casts. With the sunlight comes a steady wind that blasts the crystalline snow onto my face like grit. Not much snow has fallen yet, but North St. Vrain Creek is completely frozen in places and covered with snow. The ice records the movements of water, freezing the pulses and turbulence in ice ripples and ledges, motionless swirls and bands. It seems a miracle that any water still flows in this gray and white world of ice and snow.
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Greenland, D. J., and P. J. Gregory. "Land Resources and Constraints to Crop Production." In Feeding a World Population of More Than Eight Billion People. Oxford University Press, 1998. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195113129.003.0009.
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Several assessments have been made which indicate that if adequate inputs are used, the extent of land resources is sufficient to support a world population in excess of 8 billion (Buringh and Van Heemst, 1977; Higgins ct al., 1982; de Vries et al., 1995; Dyson, 1996). There have also been many dire warnings that the methods that must be used to produce the necessary crops will lead to soil degradation and environmental pollution, as a result of which it will be impossible to sustain the present population, let alone a much greater one (Brown, 1988; Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1990; Myers, 1991; Ehrlich et al., 1993; Brown and Kane, 1995). The most detailed of these various studies is that by FAO, “Potential Population Supporting Capacity of Lands in the Developing World” (Higgins et al., 1982). Although the authors reached the conclusion that the soils of the world were able to support a population in excess of 8 billion, it was also concluded that, in 1976, 19 countries were “at risk” because they will not be able to produce sufficient food for their population in the year 2000, even at “high levels” of inputs; 36 were at risk because they could not do so at intermediate levels; and no fewer than 65 could not do so at low levels, which is all that most of them could afford. The latest estimate of the number of countries at risk at low levels of input is 82. Thus, while the world may not be on the brink of the Malthusian precipice, there are several countries that are. Rwanda, which has the highest population density of any country in Africa, appears to have fallen over the brink. At low levels of inputs, and with population pressure driving fanners to exploit soils, soil degradation and a decline in productivity are inevitable. Thus, there are many who believe that whatever practicable methods are used, it will not be possible to produce the crops necessary to support the world population. Borgstrom (1969), for instance, stated that “the world . . . is on the verge of the biggest famine in history. . . . Such a famine will have massive proportions and affect hundreds of millions, perhaps billions. By 1984 it will dwarf and overshadow most of the issues and anxieties that now attract attention.” The fact that this did not happen, just as the prophets of doom from Malthus on have so far been proved wrong, has led many others to assume that there is unlikely to be a continuing problem of food production, although many continue to predict massive famines in the near future.
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McMichael, Anthony. "Eurasian Bronze Age: Unsettled Climatic Times." In Climate Change and the Health of Nations. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190262952.003.0011.
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The Story Now Moves beyond the mid- Holocene. By around 4000 B.C.E., viable agrarian settlements had appeared in many parts of the world. Not only could larger populations be supported, but surplus food produced by toiling farmers enabled the differentiation of labour and social status. Settlements expanded, made trading connections, and formed larger collective polities. Hierarchical authority and power began to replace horizontal flows of local information and decision- making. The vagaries of climate, however, lurked on the horizon. Agrarian societies, with their increasing dependence on harvest staples, were painting themselves into a corner. Also, as populations grew and settlements coalesced, mutant strains of animal- hosted microbes that made a successful crossing from livestock or urban pests to humans took advantage of larger, intermingling host populations. A few of these adventurers, such as the measles virus, not only initiated new epidemics but continued circulating, between outbreaks, as endemic “crowd diseases.” Measles, a microbial success story, is still with us today. The advent of property, food stores, and occupied land in nearby populations stimulated both war and conquest, each having diverse, debilitating, and often bloody consequences for health and survival. Climatic conditions in Sumer, sitting at the meteorological crossroads of the Middle East, began changing about 3600 B.C.E., one- third of the way into the fourth millennium B.C.E. . There was a general cooling and drying in the northern hemisphere as the first phase of the Holocene Climatic Optimum waned and as the Icelandic Low and Siberian (Asiatic) High circulations intensified, funnelling colder air southwards. Rainfall declined in southern Mesopotamia, compounded by a southerly drift of the rain- bearing Inter- Tropical Convergence Zone and the regional monsoon. Further west, the Sahara was changing from green to brown, and Egyptian agriculture was faltering. As rainfall declined and arrived later in the year, farming became more difficult; farmers now needed to make a year- round effort, with double- cropping and shorter fallow periods. By extending their irrigation systems, the Sumerians compounded another problem: several centuries of overirrigation and deforestation had already begun to turn the soil saline.
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Wohl, Ellen. "September: Alternate Realities." In Saving the Dammed. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190943523.003.0012.
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The first week of September mostly feels like summer. The air on the dry terrace bordering the beaver meadow is richly scented with pine. Purple aster, blue harebells, and tall, yellow black-eyed Susan still bloom. Fungi are more abundant on the forest floor, and the tiny, purplish berries of kinnikinnick are sweet to the taste. The air is warm in the sunshine, but strong winds hurry rain showers through at intervals. Patches of last year’s snow linger on the surrounding peaks, even as the first light snows have already fallen in the high country. Down in the beaver meadow, the leaves of aspen, willow, birch, and alder are starting to assume their autumn colors. Here and there a small patch of yellow or orange appears among the green. Blades of grass have a pale orange tint and the strawberry leaves have gone scarlet, even as white asters, purple thistles, and a few other flowers continue to bloom. The creek is noticeably lower, its cobble bed slick with rust-brown algae. Exposed cobble and sandbars have grown wider as the water has shrunk back from the edge of the willows, and the main channel is easy to cross on foot. The clear water is chillingly cold in both the main channel and the side channels. The smaller side channels no longer flow, and a drape of mud mixed with bits of plants covers the cobbles. Wood deposited a year ago has weathered to pale gray. The older, marginal beaver ponds have shrunk noticeably, and the water is lower in the main ponds, where tall sedges now lie bent on the top of the declining water surface. The beavers remain active: following fresh moose tracks, I come on a newly built beaver dam on a small side channel. By the third week of September, autumn has clearly arrived in the mountains. The air remains quite warm during the day, but nights of frost are swiftly bringing out the autumn colors. Whole stands of willows and aspen now glow golden or pumpkin-orange.