Birds Flocking Already---Sign of an Early Fall/Winter?

Earthworms are climbing the plum trees in San Francisco.

I put up a post 2 weeks ago saying the geese were leaving and the leaves changing and the drop in temperature at night, But today I watched a squirrel run back and forth across my driveway at least 200 times gathering acorns. Went and looked around the yard and they have already begun to fall. We had a normal summer here as far as it goes. actually a really good one so its not drought or anything. Just starting to dry out now which is quite typical.My post was Enjoy the summer. Shits not happening until late fall.

Wow, thank you everyone for your responses. I haven't been able to get out like I said I would, my allergies went berserk last night and I was down most of the day due to antihistamine. I am allergic to ragweed, so I'll try to look for that at some point.

The overall feeling I get is that people are noticing an earlier onset of fall, but there are reasonable objections (nature isn't set in stone is one very good argument I saw). I'll admit that it is perfectly possible that what is being experienced is within a normal variance from the set dates we expect these changes to occur. Sadly though I will not buy the nibiru object influence as we'd seen it by now with anyone in the southern hemisphere with a telescope. Also an object of that size (planet or dwarf star) would be having far larger effects on the planet by now. Sorry, but that's for a different thread.

The magnetic field change statement was an interesting look, but doesn't directly influence the seasons. The Earth's tilt does this, and it changed (by inches so not really relevant) a bit after the Japan quake in 2011. The tilt would cause more change while magnetic field weakening (or solar output increase) would turn the overall temperature up instead across the world.

I had not thought about my farmer's almanac. I just looked up my region and it basically said for all of 2012 that precipitation and temperature would be near normal. Sadly its wrong on both accounts.

My theory at this point is that Fall is soon upon if not already here, and that winter will be earlier as well. As to severity I could only point to the actions of the animal kingdom who seem to be stocking, packing, and beefing up earlier and more hardily than their normal fare. One of my neighbors said she'd taken to looking over dogs at her deliveries at she'd noticed almost all of them are shedding their summer coats and putting on extra weight.

Hopefully we're all just being a little extra paranoid and having a moment because we miss the heat (Stockholm Syndrome style).

Maybe summer is gone already. It was so cool the last few days it was unbelievable. And heavy fog in the morning. I haven't seen birds in a long while, nor have I seen flies, grasshoppers or mosquitos in weeks.

same here. its been really hot since early march. about 3 weeks ago leaves started falling and changing color. yesterday was hotand this morning i woke up and went outside and it was like we were in mid october. the sky color, the light fog, and temperature is very cool with a cool breeze.

Heard someone say that they saw Canadian geese flying south the other day here in Phoenix..I did not witness it tho but the dude that said it has a good reputation for being honest. I'll keep an eye to the sky here in Arizona!

the tree in my front yard has lost lots of it leafs and my tree in the backyard the leafs are yellow.

I've also noticed it's not as hot in Ga. as it should be right now. My husband made the comment tonight when we were riding with the windows down how you could feel fall in the air. The nights are a lot cooler now. We haven't wanted to swim in our pool for about three weeks now. August is usually unbearably hot.

Family member said geese were heading south a couple of weeks ago. WA state.

You said, "the local flora myself and noticed a lot of the leaves were becoming brittle like before they start turning color. I'd say it was because of the drought but the local water table isn't that depleted as the river is still flowing (though at a reduced level)." My tomato plants are doing this... the fruit is not turning red like it should... just getting hard... not normal. The leaves are turning hard like you mentioned/brittle...

Something is not right with the tomato plants this year.

I watered them.
Fertilized them.
Took good care of them.
Now they are not ripening like they are supposed to.

WTF?

I included that to be objective and recognize that other factors could be impacting the plants. Our cherry tomatoes are in similar shape, but have perked up with the decrease in temp and the few inches of rain recently. Even saw a few flowers starting to bloom.

Corn though is a complete loss here. They may be able to get some out of it, but the stalks all look like they'd be cutting the mazes out already in October, and that's if they were about 1/3 again taller. Sorghum and soybean plants seemed to have fared better and are still green. No wheat locally this year so I can't give any first hand report on whats going on with them.

As for why your tomato plants may have failed, it could have been due to an overexposure to UV radiation during the heat waves. To say it was off the charts is an understatement as I could only take a few minutes in direct sunlight (without sunscreen) before feeling my skin tingle. Most summers that's a good 15-20 minutes. I'm reminded vaguely that this is one of the reasons we need to save the ozone layer: to protect not just animal life, but plant life from UV rays as well.

Ants have become very invasive once more, and I also found what I call a "fall bug" inside the truck when we took a trip. Its a beetle about 1/2" long and black and red. I haven't seen one in ages and that time it was in a wooded area about mid-October. More of a nuisance of just being a creepy crawly than a real threat from what I was told then. I'll keep my eyes and ears peeled though for anything else.

At this point its probably safe to assume we're seeing fall move in a couple weeks earlier than the "norm". No real signs of what winter will do though, but if spring also came in early it's at least plausible winter will also.