Autumn is a busy time for both man & beast. Winter is fast approaching and your home, nest or burrow has to be ready for it. For us humans, logs that have been drying all summer have to be ready for use and the cottage made secure against the elements. The last mushrooms and berries are to be collected and preserved. The boats must be pulled clear of the water and the housewives are busy making the winter supply of tun-brot in the wood-fired village bakery. The migratory birds pass through on their way south. The whooper swans are one of the last birds to leave and their hooting gets ever more anxious as the water thickens with cold and their long flight south draws ever closer. If they prayed, then mice & voles would be asking for deep snow before the real cold sets in. They can survive the cold under deep snow but perish without it.
