Autumn is one of the four seasons
It comes after a hot summer and precedes winter.
At first, the transition from one season to another is almost imperceptible. It is still warm, the sun is shining brightly, and the bright flowers delight with their beauty. But gradually the air temperature drops and the length of daylight hours decreases.
And now sometimes the rain starts to fall, and in the sky from time to time you can see migratory birds hurrying south, emitting a long farewell cry.
The healing fruits of the rose hips are ripening, the clusters of viburnum sparkle like flames in the last rays of the sun. Autumn, like a real artist, paints fruits and leaves in bright colors with a huge brush. The forest is becoming quieter, there is no longer the spring-summer hubbub of birds, but there are a lot of mushrooms, and in the gardens ripe apples and pears are pleasing to the eye.
Tired of summer worries and troubles, Nature is preparing for rest. But finally, it pleases us with its stunning and unique colors, and a farewell dance - leaf fall!
And autumn is also a time of inspiration and contemplation, leaves rustling underfoot and cobwebs sparkling in the sun. This warm “Indian summer” is like a wonderful continuation of summer. It's a great time!
Autumn changes in wildlife
For plants, autumn is a thorough preparation for the winter period, when all of them (living in natural conditions) go into hibernation: vital activity and the exchange of juices decreases many times over.
With the onset of cold weather, insects hide and hibernate.
This is a protective reaction to lower temperatures. Many insects (such as flies and beetles) crawl into cozy crevices and appear dead at first glance. But that's not true. When spring comes, they will come to life and fly again.
Cold-blooded animals "fall asleep" as a result of the fact that they cannot maintain the temperature necessary for existence.
Snakes, frogs, reptiles and amphibians all hibernate in late fall.
At the very beginning of autumn, birds prepare to fly to warmer climes. Then their flight begins. Wintering birds do not fly anywhere and feed intensively in the autumn forests.
Some mammals also hibernate in late fall and early winter.
But this is most likely due not to the onset of cold weather, but to the lack of food supply for them in winter. Such animals include: bear, badger, marmot, hedgehog, some rodents (gopher, hamster, dormouse).
Hibernating mammals intensively accumulate weight in order to use their own fat for warmth and nutrition during the winter cold.
Thus, the animal world is preparing for the approach of the winter cold period, reacting differently to autumn changes in nature.
K. Paustovsky said beautifully about autumn:
“More than all the seasons, I love and pity autumn, perhaps because it has very little time allotted for its rustling and flying life.”
AUTUMN CHANGES
IN NATURE
Prepared by:
Minkin Egor
Student 2 "A" class
Every autumn, the animals in the forest carefully prepare for the difficult period of the year. Food is stored in their pantries, holes are insulated, summer coats are exchanged for winter ones.
Who flew away and who stayed
Those birds that cannot feed themselves in winter fly away from our places in the fall.
Most of the seeds fall to the ground and end up under the snow.
And many birds feed on the seeds of grasses, trees, and shrubs. For some birds, the main food is insects; with the onset of cold weather, they disappear: some die, others hide. Frogs, toads, and fish become inaccessible to birds.
It is difficult to catch mice and other small animals that have taken refuge under deep snow cover or hibernated.
So cranes, geese, and seagulls are moving in shoals and lines to warmer climes.
Birds that remain to spend the winter in our forests make provisions for themselves in the fall. The jay selects the largest acorns and hides them under the moss, under the roots, and buries them in the foliage.
The nuthatch picks up hazel nuts, linden nuts and maple wings and drives them into the cracks of tree bark at high altitudes. Little owls make curious supplies. They hide killed mice and small passerine birds in hollows.
Those who can't fly
Trees cannot part with their trunk and branches for the winter and hide underground.
They do things differently: they shed their leaves. Leaves need a lot of moisture. And the water in the soil freezes in winter and the roots cannot pump it out. In addition, leaves in winter would only harm the tree. Under the weight of the snow adhering to them, branches and twigs would break. Losing leaves does not hurt: there are no wounds on the branches from fallen leaves, if in the summer the petioles of the leaves are firmly connected to the branches, because nutrients move along them, then in the fall, where the petiole is attached to the branch, a special cork layer grows and gradually, like a partition, separates petiole from a branch.
Herbs hide underground
These cunning creatures part with the above-ground part of the plant.
The main thing for them is to save the underground pantry - a rhizome, tuber or bulb in which nutrients accumulated in the summer. In spring, these reserves will help to quickly revive the stem and leaves.
About the inhabitants of the forest
By winter, the squirrel makes a large, warm hollow, with tow, squirrel hair and down stuck into all the walls.
In one corner there are dried mushrooms, in another - nuts, in the third - apples. Beavers strengthen dams and repair lodges. Bears in deep forest thickets are looking for a place for a den, where they will hibernate from the beginning of winter.
A hungry fox wanders along the banks of rivers and streams, looking out for young, inexperienced ducks. Insects: beetles, spiders, flies hide in cracks in the bark of trees and bushes, hide under leaves, overwinter in dry stumps and snags.
“Chilled” worms and... grain intervention
Moles make deep underground passages and hide earthworms in them: the mole bites the head of its victim and the worms cannot move, although they remain alive, so the mole always has fresh food in winter.
The gray vole living in the field stores in its burrows two or three kilograms of grains of wheat, millet, rye, and as a seasoning for this - leaves and roots of many herbs.
And the bank vole prepares nuts, acorns, maple wings, linden nuts, and various berries.
What are people doing at this time?
For example, for the tenants of the Charysh forestry, and there are more than 50 of them, as the forester of the Charysh forestry Pyotr Kisly told us about, autumn is especially troublesome.
Hay is harvested from July to September, and when the road “goes up” it is taken out. Almost all the cattle have already been put into stalls with the first snow. But the horses continue to graze in the snow, shoveling it and getting dry grass. And so on until spring. In the spring, the breeding stock of horses is kept in stalls, and the young animals remain in the forest.
Beekeepers, according to tenant Denis Kucherenko from the Solton forestry, collect bees for the winter with the first frosts; by the way, some have bees overwintering in the wild, while others have bees in omshaniks.
Ekaterina Ivanova, director of the Priobye hunting farm, says:
“Both wild animals and we humans are preparing for winter. We prepare food so that during the winter “crisis” wild animals can feed on our sites.
If we talk about long-term observations of animals, they most often change their “clothes” for winter; there are many peculiarities in their behavior. The earth is still black, but the hare is already white. The boar grows an undercoat that is saturated with sebaceous glands and will not get wet in winter! Wild boars live together in the same territory for years and winter here; they do not tend to make “housing” wherever they have to - they dug a ditch in the swamp to a warm, thawed place and this is their home.
The elk is also not picky, where night falls is its home. The elk are in their rut in the fall, calling for females, scratching their antlers on a tree, thus shedding them.
The lynx becomes even more beautiful in winter - its coat turns white. If you meet her, you will be amazed, she will never run away cowardly, this huge cat will proudly turn around and walk away with her family from your path with dignity. But in general, in the fall, animals everywhere have a mating season, and in the spring there will be babies, some of them - up to 15 for a wild boar, one or two calves for an elk, one or two kittens for a lynx.
FORESTMAN'S PAGE
Brief description of the autumn months
SEPTEMBER Begins the autumn period in the Northern Hemisphere and the spring period in the Southern Hemisphere. The name “September” comes from the serial number of the month according to the ancient Roman calendar. September was the seventh ("septem" in Latin means seven) month of the year, since before Caesar's reform the beginning of the calendar year was in March. Among the ancient Slavs, the name of the month is consonant with the name of the heather plant. It bloomed precisely during this period. In September, the healing rose hips ripen, the last thunder is heard, the smell of thyme, mushrooms and ripe apples is heard. Migratory birds gather in warm countries.
OCTOBER Mid-calendar autumn. The eighth month according to the ancient Roman calendar (“octo” - eight). The ancient Slavs used zhovten, because the time had come for “zhovtinnya” (yellowening) of the leaves. In October, the air temperature decreases, the number of days with precipitation and fog increases, and frosts are already possible at night. In countries that switch to winter time, October is the longest month of the year (745 hours).
NOVEMBER The final month of calendar autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. In Latin "novem" means nine. Hence the name. The ancient Slavs called the last month of autumn leaf fall, since it was in November that this natural phenomenon took place. November is a month when cold and snow give way to periods of warmth and bad weather. In November, by observing natural phenomena, you can make a fairly accurate forecast for the coming winter and the future harvest.
Changes in nature in autumn
Leaf fall is a wonderful natural phenomenon, justified from a biological point of view. Fallen leaves give trees a chance to rest and prepare for a long winter hibernation. Without leaves, trees consume less water, accumulate less snow on their bare branches, and, therefore, the risk of mechanical damage is reduced. With their leaves, trees shed all harmful insects that will die in the winter season.
It is during leaf fall that the Indian summer period begins. The latest warmest temperatures bring moderate sunshine. Late fruits ripen and are filled with sweetness and a special aroma. At night you can already feel the breath of near cold weather, but during the day it is very beautiful and peaceful.
Indian summer does not last long, starting on the 20th of September, it ends with the onset of the next month, it is replaced by the first serious signs of autumn bad weather. A thick fog falls to the ground, sticky and milky, filling the air with rotten dampness.
Why do trees need leaf fall?
Leaves are the lungs of a tree. Without them, photosynthesis is impossible - a process that is both respiration and nutrition for a plant at the same time. Photosynthesis occurs best when the tree has enough light and heat.
Therefore, with the first rays of the spring sun, they begin to bloom young sticky leaves. But in the winter cold, the leaves become a burden. And the first reason that prompts a tree to get rid of its lush crown is lack of moisture and cold. In winter, the top layer of soil freezes, and it becomes impossible to extract water from it. Leaves evaporate a very large amount of moisture. If the plant had not shed them in the winter cold, it would have died of thirst.
Another good reason to get rid of leaves is winter precipitation.
It happens that even without leaves, snow and ice, sticking to the branches, break the tree with their mass. Imagine how much such cargo would accumulate on the leaves! Few trees would survive until spring intact.
The plant begins preparing for autumn leaf fall ahead of time. In August-September, a smooth partition grows at the base of the leaf - the so-called cork layer. Increasing in volume, it gradually separates the petiole from the branch. For some time the leaf still holds on due to the “water-bearing” vessels, but as soon as a light wind blows, it falls off.
A sure sign that leaf fall is about to begin is yellowing or redness of the foliage.
This happens because due to the lack of daylight, chlorophyll, a substance that participates in the process of photosynthesis and colors the leaf green, does not have time to recover. It is gradually replaced by other substances, which is why the leaf changes color.
At its core, fog is a thick cloud that forms at the very surface of the earth. The sharp change in temperature in the early morning hours lifts moisture into the air, concentrating it there.
As soon as the temperature rises, the fog will dissipate and moisture will fall back onto the ground, covering the withered grass with a layer of frost if the ground has cooled enough.
Frost is particles of frozen dew.
They look like prickly snowflakes, covering all surfaces with an uneven, prickly layer. As a rule, the appearance of a light ice cover indicates that negative temperatures and the first frosts have appeared.
With cooler temperatures comes a cold front that brings a cold air mass. Winds change their directions and intensify, bringing with them precipitation and bad weather. If this happens gradually, then autumn turns out to be slushy and protracted. Cumulonimbus clouds carry large amounts of precipitation. If climate change occurs abruptly, then you can often see rain and snow, strong winds, and the appearance of various cold cyclones in early autumn.
Closer to December, the air temperature drops to low negative levels, which already bind the water surface with the first crust of ice. The ice is not yet completely strong, so the water carries it downstream, forming an autumn ice drift.
In mid-autumn, the ground is covered with ice; it forms only under conditions of light frost, which prevents rain from turning into snow. The air is already cold, but the ground has not yet cooled down enough for everything around to be covered with a white blanket of snow - the first harbinger of severe frost. This is how nature prepares the transition to winter, long and protracted, snowy and cold.
Frosty breath can already be felt in the cold nights, and bad weather and slush rearrange all living things around, putting them into hibernation, which helps to cope with the approaching cold weather.
Fog is an accumulation of condensation products. A huge number of water droplets or ice crystals gather together and form a cloud at the surface of the earth. Sometimes it is so dense that nothing is visible at arm's length.
Physical principles of fog formation
Fog is formed due to the contact of cold air with warm air at a relative humidity of more than 85%.
But in populated areas, fog often occurs even with low humidity. This occurs as a result of condensation of water vapor, which appears during the combustion of fuel (in furnaces, car engines, etc.).
Fog. Photo: Christoffer H.
Seasonality in fog formation
Fog can occur at any time of the year. This is a common occurrence in lowlands, above water bodies, and in the mountains. Fog occurs most often in the autumn-winter period. High humidity prevails during these months. Air temperature tends to change abruptly. Therefore, currents of warm and cold air actively move above the ground.
The duration of fogs in a time period can vary from several tens of minutes to a day or even more. Frost is a type of precipitation, which is ice crystals, formed during the sublimation of atmospheric moisture on horizontal and subhorizontal surfaces.
deep autumn
Farewell to the Motherland
Flocks of birds fly away, beyond the blue sea. All the trees shine in a multi-colored dress. Konstantin Balmont
Each degree of temperature drop from +10 to +5, which lasts from the end of September to mid-October, is a criterion for the departure of a certain species of bird. Nature here has everything strictly regulated so as not to create a crowd in air traffic.
An important step in the period is when the average daily temperature reaches +8, when heating is turned on in houses.
Birds fly south. © Foto Factory | Shutterstock.com
Golden autumn ends on October 14 - on the holiday of Intercession. People have long noticed that the first snow falls on this day. In Moscow, such an event occurs infrequently, only once every 10 years. In deep autumn, which lasts almost until the end of the month, night frosts become a regular occurrence, and during the day the temperature rarely exceeds +10.
First winter
First snowstorms
The dug-up road sleeps. Today she dreamed that there was just a little time left to wait for the gray winter... Sergei Yesenin
Climatic autumn usually ends on November 10, when the average daily temperature steadily passes through 0. The first winter is the time of the first snowfalls and the first daytime “minuses”. Snow cover is becoming more and more stable and the long-term average falls on November 28th. However, in recent history there have been cases when it remained lying until spring from October 31st, and sometimes appeared only after the New Year.
And finally...
Children are very inquisitive at every age, and therefore parents should prepare for studying the seasons in advance, so that when the baby begins to have the first questions, an adult can answer them correctly, give examples, show these phenomena in nature and then consolidate everything with games and exercises .
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At what age should you start learning the seasons?
Of course, even from infancy, you can tell a baby about the seasons, and perhaps this information will be deposited somewhere on a subconscious level, and it’s simply useful to conduct dialogues with babies, developing their auditory perception.
But for a conscious understanding, this topic should be addressed at the age of 18-24 months. At the same time, it is important not to unload all the knowledge you have on your child, but to begin to gradually introduce concepts such as “warm” and “cold”, “cloudy” and “sunny”, “rainy and dry”.
Discuss the weather before going for a walk and when you dress your baby - tell why now you need to put on rubber boots and not sandals, why you need a hat, etc. Simple phrases: “We’ll put on mittens so that our hands don’t freeze,” “We’ll put on our cheeks, so that the frost doesn’t bite”, “Let’s take a cap/hat with us so that your nose doesn’t burn” have their own associative power, which will lay the foundation for a better understanding of weather conditions. And, already using this information, you can tell your child about the seasons.
If at 18-24 months you did not have time to tell your baby about the seasons, it is important not to miss this moment at the age of 3-4 years. But in this case, the first stages of introducing conversations about the weather should be completed as soon as possible, and then proceed to more informative stories that allow you to clearly distinguish between the seasons and identify the differences between them.
Pre-winter
Deserted Forest
Late fall. The rooks flew away, the forest was exposed, the fields were empty. Nikolay Nekrasov
A golden leaf is already covering the wet ground in the forest... I boldly trample with my foot the beauty of the spring forest. Apollo Maykov
A sign of this time is leaf fall. When the temperature passes through 0, the moisture contained in the cutting freezes and it breaks off. The leaf makes a quiet farewell flight...
Empty forest. © S.Borisov | Shutterstock.com
It's a busy time for motorists to change their tires. Summer tires at temperatures below +5 lose their properties and do not provide proper grip. As snow events become more frequent, deep autumn resigns its powers.
snow powder
Fog lay over the fields, a caravan of noisy geese stretched to the south: a rather boring time was approaching; It was already November outside the yard. Alexander Pushkin
The average date for the formation of temporary snow cover is October 28, and it also opens the gates to the pre-winter. The weather becomes chilly and windy. Snow falls, lies a little, but still melts. The streets are getting slushy.
First snow. © Lutsan Pavlo | Shutterstock.com
