A Time of Flux & Fall Color in the Estuary

November has arrived. It is mid-autumn. After the a week of eccentric weather of wind and rain, warmth and sun, frost and flurries, is there any doubt that autumn is a season of flux and folly as we take passage between summer and winter.

(Fall colors highlight the background to deep blue estuarine waters of the Navesink River in the foreground)

The week began with a rapidly strengthening coastal nor'easter roaring into the northwestern Atlantic to spread heavy rain, strong tidal flooding, and snow flurries across coastal New Jersey; and a significant snow for many upland areas. At the same time, blustery conditions brought sustained winds of 20 mph with gusts up to 50 mph to many coastal communities. By the time the storm departed around Wednesday, we would see well over an inch of rain along the Jersey Shore and blizzard conditions in parts of the Poconos, Adirondacks and the Green and White mountains of the northeastern part of the United States. In an odd way, this unexpected, unseasonable strong nor'easter gave an early sense of retreating indoors that characterizes so much of the winter season. Surely, with cool days and cooler nights, autumn is starting on the downward slope towards winter.

In the past, many Lighthouse Keepers of the Jersey Shore knew that autumn was a season of great change along the coast. As leaves fall and wintering ducks arrive, prevalent winds turn northerly from a southerly direction. This change, however, does not occur without agony. Fall weather has been known to get crazy with wind, rain, snow, and dense fog. In some cases foghorns would go twenty-four hours nonstop for several days to warn ships of shifting sands near a shoreline, while other times winter-type storms would pound the shore. Winter nor'easter start to take over from tropical storms to batter New Jersey's eroding coastline. Some of the mightiest storms to ever wreak havoc along the Jersey Shore have taken place during autumn. For example, the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 hit on Thanksgiving weekend and pounded the Northeast with flooding rains and heavy winds. In fact, a wind gust of 108 mph was recorded in Newark, NJ during the storm.

(Two stately Great American Egrets searching out a fishy meal as they slowly migrate southward for the winter)

In earlier times along the Jersey Shore, year-round residents would complete the harvest season by now to make way for chilly, wet and windy weather.  After the hectic pace of summer and early fall, many folks would start the preparations for winter and get down to the maintenance of equipment for fishing, crabbing, carving, weaving, and other crafts that helped assure a bountiful harvest when spring returned.

Certainly, autumn is the season that makes historians, philosophers, and dreamers of us all. Halloween, colorful leaves, decreasing daylight and shadows in the forest, all provide an environment in which we can allow our minds to wander. Of course, one of the most pleasant reminders of autumn is the great change of leaf color.

(Not all radiant color comes from leaves of tree. The reddish stems of a tiny Glasswort marsh plant turn bright red in the fall.)

Shifting from the stability of summer into the mixed weather bag of fall, there is snow in the high mountains of the Northeast now, but along coastal communities in New Jersey it is time for peak fall color. Fall colors reach their peak sometime in September in northern New England, but along the Jersey Shore the best time to enjoy fall color is around mid-autumn.

Get outside and you will see that the Jersey Shore is glowing this week with autumn color. The best fall color usually occurs in the last week of October or the first week of November. Many beech, ash, locust, sycamore, sumac, and oak leaves are turning various hues of butter yellow, bronze, gold, scarlet, ruby, or russet.

Journeying down to the bay this past weekend, I was blinded by the yellow-gold glow of the coastline which, until this weekend, had been faithfully green. Of course, the strong winds of the preceding nor'easter caused many trees to lose their leaves, and the reds of early autumn have now quickly faded. Yet, the yellow, gold, and russet colors are coming all into their own.

(Nearly every day now, many Brant, a sea goose, are arriving to the bay from up north to overwinter here)

One thing I have noticed over the past several years is that overall colors are more subdued than in the past. No longer do I observe the glorious fluorescent bright reds and oranges of the Red Oaks or Sassafras. Even the once intense crimson leaves of the dogwood seem muted somehow.  Nevertheless, it is still beautiful and there is no other place I would rather spend mid-autumn than along the Jersey Shore. Perhaps to somehow supplement the loss of certain color, Mother Nature has made the sky a brilliant deep blue and completed it with wisps of cumulous clouds to create a picturesque day down at the bay.

With peak fall color arriving to the Bayshore region this week, came another pulse of migrating birds. The steady stream of southbound birds continues. Many flocks of Brant and Snow Geese were on the move yesterday. I remember, in the distance, gliding low over the salt marsh grass, I saw several Marsh Hawks or Northern Harriers. The birds were searching for small mammals or large insects to eat as they migrate southward to greener open fields. In the brackish waters of the bay I observed hundreds of coastal birds feeding during low tide. There were Greater Yellowlegs, Dunlins, Ruddy Turnstones, Least Sandpipers, and several tall, aristocrat Great Egrets. All the birds were foraging for different forms of aquatic life within different, segregated areas of the shoreline. Some birds were located high on the dry mudflats searching for worms and mollusks, while down the muddy slope, other birds were in relatively deep water and scanning the bay for small fish. Everyone seemed happy in their own separate, subtle habitats.  

(While wintering seabirds are starting to arrive to New Jersey, other coastal birds, such as sandpipers,  are still in the process of feeding here and migrating farther south)

After the intensity and fast pace of summer, the smell, sights, and slower pace of autumn along the Jersey Shore is welcomed. Yet, autumn is brief along the coast, and all too quickly strong northerly winds will usher in an unfriendly landscape. With fall foliage fading, time is running out and autumn is slipping through my fingers again. Yet, as I walked down the beach with the sun glistening on the water, I was at least captured for a few hours by the beauty of this estuary, and the flora and fauna that enliven it. When at last I left bay waters, I walked slowly inland knowing the wind would be strong soon and darkness was less than an hour away.