Last Warm Days
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These last days of warm weather are fleeting, so I've been outside when I can be. These photos are from a walk at Sand Hills State Park north of Hutchinson, Kansas, a couple weeks ago.
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This Virginia Creeper was one of the few touches of bright red.
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These dry, rust-colored berries offered a more subdued hue.
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Hedge apples are said to have the property of repelling crickets. I know of folks who've taken some home and put them in their basements.
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This is a top view of a fungus on the side of a tree.
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One of Kansas' larger cicadas (Tibicen dealbatus) trills from the top of a small tree. He wasn't alone that warm September 24. Today (October 7) is the first day I've heard no cicadas sing in Hutchinson.
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While the cicadas will keel over, this lizard has a future. I don't know lizards as well as I know turtles or cicadas, but...
I think,
I think,
I think this is a skink
That was my little salute to Theodor Seuss Geisel - Dr. Seuss - who died on a different September 24 back in 1991.
I saw many of those lizards scurrying about on the warm concrete parts of the trail, grabbing a few last meals before hibernation.
![](http://www.thelope.com/images/08-09-24-017.jpg)
Speaking of meals, it looks like this smaller cicada (Tibicen auriferus), may have just escaped being one. It took some wing damage, though. Not good.
I'll have a whole post on cicadas, soon. It's taking a lot of research and email to correctly categorize and understand all that I've shot, but it's a delight...continuing education through blogging, you know. I recommend it.
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