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Lutike landscape. Otepää hillocks

Phenological autumn begins with the colouring of maple leaves which inland occurs a little before, or broadly speaking about ten days prior to the beginning of astronomical autumn, on September 22nd, at 23.44.

 

The weather has been quite summerlike in daytime so far, but early mornings before 7 o’clock feel rather crisp and so warmer clothing is already needed. At 8 in the evening it is turning dark, and night seems very long although being under a starlit sky without light pollution in clear weather is fascinating to some, romantic to others.

 

Bird flocks gather already since long, some species have already left, but the massive autumn movement of migrating birds is yet to come. So is the Indian or old wives' summer that occurs annually, with variable duration, in mid-autumn, in other words a non-regular „season“. There are things to enjoy.

 

A massive fall of leaves is taken as the beginning of late autumn; geese migration ends and swans leave. The growth of winter crops in fields is arrested, for most plants a rest period starts. Salmons as well as trout spawn in rivers.

 

The first major snowfall ends late autumn, in turn already meaning the beginning of pre-winter …