The Sights and Sounds of Fall

Blog Category
Discover Nature Notes
Published Display Date
Oct 12, 2015
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The landscape is awash with the colors of changing leaves. Sunsets are coppery. Fall smells are evocative: cider, smoke from burning leaves, and the singed pumpkin of a jack-o-lantern plug.

The sounds of fall are distinct too. Crickets call. As E.B. White wrote in “Charlotte’s Web”: “They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad monotonous song.”

Crisp, dead leaves cover the ground and swish and crunch underfoot. Squirrels chatter and raise a leafy rattle as they scurry for acorns to bury and find again as fall fades into winter.

Deer look for mates, and they move restlessly. Bucks vying for dominance fight, and their antlers clack and scrape. A lone deer suddenly surprised is likely to snort.

Migrating geese cut across autumn skies in wide V’s, belting out calls of reassurance to one another. The chorus of honks fills the chilly air, first softly, then stridently, and then fades away. A new fleet takes up the calm then it passes too, and the relay continues, sometimes for hours.

You can find and share more Missouri fall colors with our MO Fall Colors app! Browse up-to-minute fall-color scenes from places nearby and around the state. Use the GPS info to navigate to them. Want to add your fall-color finds? Our app lets you share them with Facebook friends and others, and allows you to browse weekly fall color forecasts in your area. Available on Apple and Android devices.

Fall in Missouri

You can enjoy Missouri’s fall color almost anywhere. The peak of fall color in Missouri is usually around mid-October.

  • For spectacular vistas, choose routes along rivers with views of forested bluffs, and along ridges with sweeping scenes of forested landscapes.
  • On a smaller scale, drive on back roads, hike, or take a float trip under a colorful forest canopy on a clear, blue-sky day. Visit one of the many MDC Conservation Areas or Missouri State Parks.
  • Even treeless areas, such as prairies and roadsides, display beautiful shades of gold, purple, olive, and auburn with autumn wildflowers, shrubs, and curing, rustling grasses.
  • If you can’t get out of town, enjoy places with mature trees, such as older neighborhoods, parks, and even cemeteries.

Follow updates from the MDC on the changing colors throughout the state here.

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