Coyotes and crickets

  Saturday late afternoon I went to the Southwest Gate of the Woods to enjoy a walk. I took a small bow saw with the intention of clearing a few hanging Ampelopsis raccoon grape vines and small trees fallen across the trail. I walked the South Boundary trail and enjoyed the peaceful silence. A mile north, football fans, perhaps 80,000, gathered for a night game with Iowa.
  It was a mild late afternoon. I disturbed one white-tailed buck, north of the big bur oaks. He snorted in alarm, flashed his white tail and trotted north deeper into the Woods where tree crickets were singing. This will likely be the end of the cricket season, and the end of the lives of this generation. Another warm day Sunday with a forecast high of 71 F, then a cold front from Siberia arrives Monday night, with a forecast low of 19 F. The sudden drop may kill the late season songsters.
 Clearing a few logs and vines I walked east, and then north to cross at Beaver Dam. At the southern base of the old dune I remembered my close encounter with a barred owl. I have not heard any barred owls in the Woods in the past few weeks. I wonder if they have moved to different woods.
  I stopped by the patch of bittersweet I had been battling and thought I could still see green leaves up in the canopy, but in the low light it was impossible to be sure. I puzzled again over the remarkable flush of new fresh green leaves of scattered red elms and box elder in the under story south of the East West trail. What could be going on there? If we hit 19 F Monday night I imagine these leaves will all die and be left hanging black on the trees.

   At Elm Bridge there was still a good wide channel of water backed up to Island Crossing. This evening it was still. By Tuesday it will be iced over and I wondered if it would be thick and strong enough to walk or skate on - probably not. I enjoyed a moment there at 5:40 PM watching the full moon rising in the eastern sky. The sun had set, leaving a golden gloaming of all the western horizon through the branches of the trees.
  As I turned to make my way back across the Woods I heard a lone coyote howl off in the distance, probably south along Jenkins Rd. Silence followed for two or three minutes then it was answered by a chorus of other coyotes joined in singing their up and down calliope of sound.
  Nice farewell to the Woods for the evening.