Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-09-22
IOWA IN AUTUMN.

LtTeQ j. LaZell in Cedar Rapids Re-
publican.l
Since the first of the month the lit
tie catkins have been creeping from
the twigs of the hazel and their ten
der, spring-like green is quite as in
teresting as the ripening punches of
nuts. These little catkins will hang
short and stiff all winter, but when
the ice goes out of the rivers and the
first frog croalSs in the springtime they
will lengthen, soften and grow yellow
with their abundant pollen. Squirrels
are busy among the acorns and the
hickory nuts; the split husks and shells
are thickly strewn beneath the trees.
Redheaded woodpeckers are gathering
acorns and pushing them behind the
haky bark of the wild cherry for use
during the late fall; sometimes a little
family of the redheads remains all
winter. Chipmunlls are carrying acorns
to their granaries; they dash into their
holes with a sQueal. as if in derision at
your slow-footed manner of walking
Sumac flames from the fence cor
ners and lights up the country lanes.
1t is the first of the shrubs to an
nounce in fiery placards the coming
spectacle of the passing of the sum-
mer. Next is the Virginia creeper,-
see where it flames up the wild cher
ry tree sea ttering crimson leaves to
the grass beneath. Once in a days
journey along the creek one may find a
small red maple. In the middle of it's
foliage is small. fiame-like spot
which grows larger day by day. Grad
ually some of the other NAPLES catch
the color fire, first little soft maple
by the shore of a muddy bayou, next
small sugar maple on the rocky slope.
The great spectacle does not come I'M
til October but the placards announce
ing it grow more numerous and vivid
day by day Blackberry leaves are
splashed with crimson; daily the
oood-red banner of the sumac grows
larger and more striking. Walnuts and
hickories begin to lose their yellow
leaces; patches of yellow appear on the
elns and the lindens; tho the mass of
the foliage remains until October many
leaves flutter down daily and it is pos
sible to see twice as far into the thick
ct as in June
The wine of life is oozing drop by
drop;
The leaves of life are falling, one by
one
Clocks of grackles spend their days
In the corntields which run down to
the creek bottom and their nights
amid the wild rice and the rushes and
willows in the swamp. In the timber
fringes and the broad bottoms along
the creek you get glimpses of the cat
bird feaSting on the grapes and the
wild plums; the brown thrasher and
the woodthrush, wholly silent now;
the little house wren who has lost her
chatter; the vireos and the orioles, the
wood pewee, the crested fly catcher
and the kingbird. They all seem to be
going southwark.
Little hocks of warblers fit among
the tree tops and the bushy margin oe
ponds near the creek will soon be alive
with the myrtle warblers-as numerous
as English sparrows in barnyard In
the night time you may hear the
"tseep' of the warblers as they wing
their way swiftly towards the south
land Sometimes thore is the tinkling
sound of the bob-o-li link, also flying in
the night time and in the morning
there may be flock of them in some
meadow leisurely getting their break
fast after their all-night flight. chatter
ing to each other in the tinkling tones
which are unlike any other song-talk
in bird land