September 2025 - On & Off Earth
The path this column takes each month usually begins out on the paths I wander through the forest that is my yard. My brain is stirred by something one or more of my senses latches onto as I walk my paths and trails. The planet itself shares much, I just try to pay enough attention to notice. What have I noticed this month; where did August go?
After a hot July with over nine inches of rain we transitioned into a cool August with less than one inch of rainfall. That wide, wild swing certainly added a layer of doubt to any long range forecasts for September. The lack of rain has reduced my creek to a series of pools but the timing of the rain, even just a few tenths of an inch, has removed any hint of crunchiness in the moss on my trails. The mosses, genetically coded to deal with deluge or drought since long before dinosaurs roamed the earth, will abide.
In addition to the messages I receive on the trails, my house, in partnership with the sun, is sending out notice of our tilted planet’s journey around our local star. The sunlight, welcomed deep into my house for the free winter heating is blocked by a slight overhang in the summer months. That star’s light is now creeping farther and farther into the house slowly altering my writing and eating seating. The Autumnal Equinox is coming!
Before the Fall season arrives we will have the Full Corn Moon (and a lunar eclipse for much of the Eastern Hemisphere) on the 7th. The next night, the ‘star’ near the moon is Saturn. The average peak of hurricane season is on September 10th. Hurricane Erin’s recent flyby, the lead news for days, should have been a good reminder to be storm aware and prepared. The sun moves from Leo into Virgo on the 17th. The Equinox is at 2:19pm EDT on the 22nd. Venus continues its reign as the Morning Star, joined by a thin crescent moon and Leo’s Regulus on the 19th.
With the moon lining up with the earth and sun for a lunar eclipse, two weeks later there is usually a solar eclipse. There is, on the 21st, but only a partial solar and only across the far off Southern Ocean. The next total solar eclipse is August 12, 2026 across northern Spain and western Iceland. My guess…reservations are already being made!
As the amazing August cool and dry trend takes us into September, where we go from there remains a mystery. Recent years have produced warm, or even hot days even as we lose two minutes of sunlight every day. I know I will still carry and swing a spider web removal stick with me on September wanders. New birds, headed south, will visit and sing. The hummingbirds will move on, northern bald eagles will move back to the area. Bucks, their velvet gone, will begin to strut into their fall rut.
Safety remains my top priority on forest walks, (it should for you, too) so I don’t push the daylight limits in the warm months; too buggy and potentially snaky. But, every now and then, I do go out after dark and early this summer the message, the word, the Earth kept sending me was: CACOPHONY. Once the sun goes down, unseen creatures of the forest tune up and begin to sing and they sing loud, a cacophony of sound. I hear an occasional whippoorwill (very late this year) and owl but it’s the insects and frogs that sing loud and long and likely for love; all night long. Hope you get out for a listen.
Today On Earth
Sunrise over OBX
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