In nature, there are two broad strategies for coping with winter scarcity: seek warmer climate or stock up on supplies. Yesterday, marked the autumnal equinox. I motored the supply barge up the creek to load five barrels of kerosene. On the way, I counted two monarch butterflies on the wind on their way to Mexico. I counted at least four sailboats anchored in the creek, each flying Canadian flags, paused for the night on their journey south in what I like to the call the fall “maple leaf” migration. They entered the Hudson River from the Champlain canal, making their way to warmer waters in Bermuda, the Florida Keys or the Caribbean. Previously, while I carted cylinders of propane from the dock, a visitor stopped me to ask about the osprey perched on the channel marker. “Shouldn’t the osprey be heading south?” “Any day now,” I replied.
Historic Landmark on the Hudson River