The crickets and cicadas, the dragonflies and leaffoot-bugs, individually and collectively, tell me that October is now in control.

Two weeks ago I could sit on my patio and hear a dozen or more crickets chirping; now I can walk around the block and hear one or two crickets chirping but slower, less exuberantly than weeks ago. And I heard just one cicada drone early in the month.

During July and August, seven dragonfly species fill the air over my yard. Come September, I see one here and one there, now and then. Then October arrives and, well, apparently dragonflies don’t care much for October because they just disappear. Leaffoot-bugs are just the opposite. They remain well hidden during summer and well into September, but then in October they appear out of nowhere on kitchen blinds, li

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