It is...That Time

What is Fall here? 
It is the menhaden coming farther up the finger of the river pushing a fan of ripples ahead on the green surface. 
It is the seagulls soaring like streamlined white kites over the river in search of the moving menhaden. 
It is the first of the casual precision of chevron flights of geese heading south just at ember sunset.

It is cormorants communing on channel marker number 14 looking like old Greek ladies in black waiting for their husbands to return on the fishing boats.

It is the striptease of the tulip poplar trees as they throw off the first of their yellow and brown leaves. 
It is the biannual bloom of the houseplant Calamondin lime tree exuding its sleepy seductive fragrance across the back deck attracting a hundred moths.

It is the dripping sound like a soft rain of the Black Gum sprinkling down its blue and green seeds by the hundreds sending its progeny everywhere including the back of one's neck.

It is, as well, the first brilliant blush of the Black Gum leaves that startle like some coral jewelry against the last of the green.

It is dozens of goldenrod soldier beetles eating pollen and wooing each other on the fast track over the fall bloom of the mist flowers. 
It is the orb weavers that have become the size of dimes as they hang precisely in the middle of their magnificent webs with precarious ease.
It is the arrival of more hummingbirds drawn to my sugar water before their migration south. 
It is a fresh red radish salad for our juicy nutrition.

It is the seductive beauty of downy orbs of sweet, juicy peaches. 
It is Chesapeake Bay blue crabs clawing their way into the crab pots for man's mouth-watering dinner. 

It is the beginning of a magnificent moon shaped like a big, bright scoop and hung freely in the early evening sky.
It is my favorite time of the year.