I’ve lived in New England for decades, but there are two things that will never seem natural to me: how early it gets dark here in winter, and the lack of a proper spring.
Since the time change, it’s dark when I walk Roxy after dinner. She has a light on her collar, and I carry a flashlight, but we are regularly startled by other walkers who dress in somber colors and don’t carry a light, their forms materializing out of the darkness like solid ghosts.
Tonight, it started drizzling just as Roxy and I set out, and after we turned toward home, forked branches of lightning lit the sky, followed by rumbling thunder. Since when, I wondered, do we have thunderstorms in November?
As we approached the house, a flock of roosting turkeys gobbled en masse from the trees across the street, as unsettled by the thunder as I was. You never know what surprises lurk on suburban streets after dark.
Hoarded Ordinaries 
Nov 14, 2021 at 11:56 am
Living in rural far west Texas, my dog and I usually see rabbits when we go for morning or afternoon walks. We don’t go out at sunset because that is when less friendly wildlife come out: skunks, maybe coyotes. Several summers ago (during a severe drought) we had to be on the lookout for javelinas and a bobcat. I live next to a reservoir.
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Nov 14, 2021 at 12:01 pm
Rabbits are a constant presence in our neighborhood: nearly as common as squirrels. We’ve seen opossums, raccoons, and even an occasional fox in our yard, and there are reports of coyotes, too. The turkeys are almost as common as the rabbits.
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