First Week
Wind whistling through bare treetops sounds different than in summer; it sounds cold. Rising in the east after sunset is the great constellation of Orion the Hunter. His bright orange upper-left star is Betelgeuse, a giant star 700 times larger than our own sun, and the bright white lower-right star is Rigel. Orion’s belt points down to the left to Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Planet Venus is very bright low in the west after sunset. Leafless trees and shrubs reveal the bird nests of the past summer. Barred owls hoot at each other in courtship; though she is larger than he, his voice is lower. Carolina chickadees, nuthatches, brown creepers, wrens, and other birds carefully inspect the bark of trees, under which hide dormant spiders, insects, and their eggs.