It is astronomically summer until Sept. 21. Many of my former teaching colleagues and friends, especially those with kids headed back to school, started lamenting the end of summer in mid-August. For the first time in 25 years or so, I can say, “Not me. I am retired and looking forward to being outside in September.”
September is a transition month, and we will have some chilly nights with temps in the 40s and some cool, dry days, but also we will have plenty of warm, even hot, days and warm muggy nights.
The autumnal or fall equinox happens this year on Sept. 23. This means there will be 12 hours of night and day across the entire planet. From that date until Dec. 21, our daylight (time between sunrise and sunset) will decrease until just over 9 hours of daylight at the winter solstice. Our sunrises are now after 6 a.m. and sunsets before 8 p.m.
September often can be our wettest month. It is the peak of hurricane season, and while we do not often get direct hits this far north, we often get the remnants in the form of downpours as hurricanes pass off the coast.
September is when fall hunting seasons(s) start. It starts with birds (pheasants, geese, woodcock, ruffed grouse aka partridge) and then ramps up with deer (archery followed by shotgun around Thanksgiving) and for most species wraps up Dec. 31. When out walking or hiking, it is a good idea to wear some “blaze orange.” This is mandatory for hunters. It also is advisable to put blaze orange on your dogs if you are walking them. In Massachusetts, Sunday is a non-hunting day, and some folks target that for their fall walking and hiking.
The Rutland Prison Camps are a great place to get outside and explore the outdoors and get a little history lesson. Some of the gates off Intervale Road in Rutland were closed this year due to an impressive washout of one of the roadways near where Longmeadow Brook meets the east branch of the Ware River. It is now open again, and DCR has created a new parking area and erected interpretive signs that give a nice overview and history of the area. Old foundations can still be explored. Nearby fields and woods are great for walking, hiking and drive-through exploration. There is great bird watching, wildlife viewing, fishing and hunting. Recently I saw a great egret there, an all-white cousin of our great blue heron that many will recognize from Cape Cod, Florida or nearer the ocean.
September also is when migrations start for many species of birds, some insects including monarch butterflies and dragonflies, and a favorite of mine, ocean fish including striped bass, bluefish, false albacore and bonito. We will see and hear more “V’s” of Canada geese overhead, ducks will start to appear in local ponds on their way south from breeding grounds in northern New England and Canada, and many songbirds start heading south, while others such as sparrows and Juncos take their place as they come here to winter. One dragonfly to keep an eye out for are Meadowhawks, smallish reddish orange dragonflies that are numerous this time of year. The eating mosquitoes and buzz around yards readying for winter. Some cold mornings they are almost “tame,” barely flying when approached as they wait for the sun to warm them and they can fly more quickly.
For many of us who fish the saltwaters, this is a great time of year. In Massachusetts, black sea bass season closes Sept. 7, but tautog, aka blackfish, starts to come back closer to shore and offer fun fishing and tasty eating. Striped bass and bluefish begin to eat voraciously to fatten up for their swim south. Surf casting, boat fishing and fishing Cape Cod Canal are tradition for many folks hoping for some angling fun and maybe some filets for the grill. Bluefin tuna fishing often peaks east of Chatham and around Provincetown. One of my personal favorite fishing is on the south side of Cape Cod for bonito and false albacore, smaller tuna cousins to bluefin, who visit this time of year brought here by warm eddies of the gulf stream. September is when the warm Gulf Stream waters are relatively (50-100) miles off of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and often semi-tropical and even tropical species of fish show up along south Cape Cod, Rhode Island and Connecticut beaches,
Featured Flora and Fauna
Raptors: Hawks, Eagles and Vultures. One of the more impressive migrations are those of raptors (hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures). For many decades “hawk watchers” have been counting migrating hawks, often from mountain and hilltops, and there is a tremendous database collected and maintained by the Hawk Migration Association of North America. The summit of Princeton’s Mount Wachusett has been a site for more than 50 years. Each day between the end of August and the end of October you can find an official counter and often one or more “watchers,” such as me. It is easy to pick us out, the ones with the binoculars and at least one spotting telescope.
The number of folks visiting the summit of Mount Wachusett each day is often surprising. Many people drive up and perhaps even more hike up. Often on weekends there are festivals, and the ski area opens the lifts and even more people visit the mountain top summit. The hawk watchers know the view well, and often educate new visitors to what they can see, which includes Boston, wind turbines, Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, ski areas of southern Vermont, and on clear days in October, Mount Washington when it gets snow-covered before any other peaks.
When the winds blow from a northerly direction, birds will “ride thermals” of warm rising air to heights of 10,000 feet or more, and then “stream” southward often well into Connecticut. In mid-September the peak of the migration one can see 5,000 or more broad-winged hawks in a single day. Other species seen regularly are bald eagles, ospreys and turkey vultures; at some point all of the 15 or more raptor species will be seen. Sunny dry days with winds blowing from the north, northwest or northeast are the best.
September is a great time to get out. Whether you attend local fairs from Woodstock, Spencer and Sterling out to the Big E, or visit local areas such as those above, take advantage of what the Wachusett area has to offer.
