Golden Autumn Days & Ducks

During our recent trip to Louisiana, we traveled on golden autumn days with a brilliant blue sky overhead.

We traveled the backroads, over hills, down into valleys, and passed by rivers and lakes that played host to visiting wild ducks 

Laura Ingalls Wilder described the scene we saw this way: "All those golden autumn days,  the sky was full of wings. Wings beating low over the blue water of Silver Lake, wings beating high in the blue air far above it...bearing them all away to the green fields in the South."

Louisiana license plates bear the phrase, "Sportsman's Paradise" because of the wild ducks who drop by in the fall and winter.

Texas is no slouch when it comes to wild ducks, deer, and other wildlife. Wild animals live in the many woods near our neighborhood. Recently, a nearby homeowner posted a photo from her Ring doorbell of a fox "relieving himself" on her front sidewalk. 

Airborne Ducks

We saw ducks in a ragged V-formation flying overhead. We could hear their calls—sounds different for each breed of duck. In Texas, Whistler Ducks sound like a peculiar combination of whistling and quacking. They stop by Louisiana and Texas on their way to a winter vacation south of the Rio Grande.

My older brother, a farmer, told us that we're in for another hard winter. All the signs on the farm point to it, he said. 

I hope he's wrong, but I'm doing online comparisons of generators just in case.

Autumn is on a par with spring in my hierarchy of favorite seasons. Autumn is the respite from summer's fierce heat. 

It's the time when we can again enjoy gardening, when we can catch our breath and spend more time outdoors.

I can't imagine a world in which the weather is always the same—with seasons unchanging. Though many think that we have perpetual summer here in the Houston area, that's simply not true. Sometimes, our seasons are just more subtle but no less enjoyable.

Takeaway Truth

Each season has its own special beauty, and autumn is the richest hued of all.

Image: Ducks Flying Mallard by Scottslm on Pixabay