The roaring sound of cicada tymbals has noticeably quieted. The next generation of periodical cicadas is young and silent. After hatching from eggs laid in trees, they will fall to the ground and tunnel into the earth, where they will live in darkness for years. These days it is the lightning bugs who are putting on a show.
While some migratory birds are leaving, others are just arriving. Birds from the Arctic Circle make their grand entrance. Arctic migratory birds can have very specific winter locales, including the east and west coastlines or hotspots occurring within select states. Others are common residents throughout much of the lower forty-eight and even more common throughout the Midwest.
On the south side of Chicago, I walked across snow-covered sand on an icy lakeshore. The ice that had formed where water met beach lowly creaked as water moved underneath it. The winter day was cold, but, thankfully, there was a lack of wind whose harshness would have only been magnified by traveling across Lake Michigan.
