I was on the ridge this morning admiring the autumn-red leaves of a gum tree, lit up by the rising sun, when a titmouse landed and, fixing his black eye on me, shouted a word in Bird I know — “Snake!” He shouted it so loud you could have heard him down in the yard. And every time he shouted it, he turned first one way on the branch, then the other. And with every turn, he fixed the eye on that side of his head on me. 

The Franklin Bird Club leads walks along the greenway on Wednesday mornings at 8 a.m. Walks start at alternating locations: Macon County Public Library, Big Bear Park and Salali Lane. 

Birders around the state are encouraged to grab their binoculars, guidebooks, hiking boots and best birding friends for a weekend of non-stop “atlasting” from June 28-30. 

The Franklin Bird Club will lead walks along the greenway on Wednesday mornings at 8 a.m. 

Finally, we can go out the back door again. For a month we made a front door detour around an unplanned construction project on the back porch. 

As we prepare for the arrival of fall, we can also be on the lookout for a breathtaking wildlife spectacle that is a part of life here in the Southern Appalachian Mountains: the migration of the broad-winged hawk.