Does a "Rogers curve" fit with #phenology?

Canada gees are finishing their molt, growing new flight feathers, and more and more of them are taking practice flights to get in shape for the autumn migration. This morning we saw small flocks, probably a family, and large flocks, several families together, silhouetted against the cloudy sky. We're rapidly approaching that time of year when we put one of our favorite Joni Mitchell songs on a repeat loop and leave it there for awhile.

Canada geese in flight

Photo by J. Harrington

After enough really warm (hot?) and humid days, Summer begins to stultify, proving, like an overdose of vanilla ice cream, that it's possible to have too much of a good thing. The growing restlessness as the seasonal change grows stronger becomes invigorating. When we lived on the East Coast, this is the time of year we began to look forward to bluefish and striped bass going on near shore feeding sprees as they began to head South for warmer Winter waters. Nature's Notebook and the Minnesota Phenology Network focus on seven Minnesota species, three of which, loon, monarch butterfly and bluebird, migrate South each Autumn. Major movements of most waterfowl, wood ducks and teal being exceptions, occur closer to the time that Autumn edges toward Winter.

monarch butterfly feeding

Photo by J. Harrington

Do you find yourself getting restless about this time of year? Are there certain Autumnal changes you look forward to? The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has its Fall Color Finder to help us track that seasonal highlight. Peak color starts near our border with Canada about a month from now. There's a theory about the diffusion of innovation, the Rogers curve, that looks like it also could cover much of our seasonal phenology changes, from innovators and early adopters through laggards. It also complements the idea that we don't all get an urge to go at the same time.

Urge For Going

by Joni Mitchell

I awoke today and found
the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky
then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
and all the trees are shivering in a naked row

I get the urge for going
But I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I had me a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darling's heart could win
But when the leaves fell on the ground
Bully winds came around
Pushed them face down in the snow

He got the urge for going
And I had to let him go
He got the urge for going
When the meadow grass was turning brown
Summertime was falling down and winter was closing in

Now the warriors of winter
They gave a cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying
And all that lives is gettin' out
See the geese in chevron flight
Flapping and racing on before the snow

They got the urge for going
And they got the wings so they can go
They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I'll ply the fire with kindling now
I'll pull the blankets up to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out and
I'll bolt my wanderings in
I'd like to call back summertime
Have her stay for just another month or so

But she's got the urge for going
So I guess she'll have to go
She gets the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
All her empire's falling down
And winter's closing in.
And I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
And summertime is falling down.

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