September 2025 Backyard Bulletin

Cover photo by Bridger Layton.

View the full edition at this link.

It feels like August has weaseled its way into September this year, with warm temperatures and smoky skies still lingering as I type. Don't get me wrong, there are things I love about August...but, well, you know, it's just not September. Nonetheless, my favorite harbingers of fall have begun to arrive like clockwork. The light of morning comes through the windows later, and more gently. The salmon are coming home. The annual ritual of standing over the sink joyfully scarfing down juicy pears has returned. And, perhaps my favorite marker of the moment, the humble rabbitbrush has burst into late season bloom. It's a bloom that perfectly facilitates the transition to fall, more muted than the bright yellow of spring's balsamroot, but still just a hair more electric than the leaves of fall. It's not a fall color, a spring color, or a summer color. It's an equinox color, and a soft assurance that the cool, clean air of autumn isn't far away.

-Bridger Layton, Education Programs Manager