It’s still August, barely, but it’s beginning to feel like fall. The sights and sounds and smells of it are everywhere.

Nights have turned chilly. The wind whistles, a sign that old timers say means they should start getting ready for winter. Some of the Vs of migrating ducks and geese are already streaking across the sky. Humming birds are busy loading up on nectar from flowers and sugar water from feeding stations to get ready for their long nonstop flight to Central America. Hot oatmeal for breakfast suddenly again seems like the way to start the day right. Summer flowers are giving way to cosmos and chrysanthemums.

A ferry boat deckhand who is also a sometime poet has his own sign of fall’s coming: He no longer hears the screen door slam, since it has turned cool enough to keep the house door shut.

Shops have long been full of back-to-school clothing and school supplies – including increasingly electronic gadgets – in preparation for an early start. School used to take up after Labor Day, but administrators have moved up the opening to provide more class time before Christmas recesses.

Most summer visitors are already packing up for departure, especially if they have children in school, although some are extending their stays in Maine to enjoy the beauties and slower pace of September and October. Automobile traffic soon will slack off, after a big final surge as the summer folks leave.

The approach of fall also triggers a last-minute determination to wind up the many outdoor chores like painting and repairing and cutting and stacking firewood for the winter. Last spring, there seemed to be plenty of time for those matters. Then came the lazy days of summer, when it was easy to put things off. Now that fall is almost upon us, a rush is on to get those jobs done.

One of the standard spring chores is sweeping up the road sand that encroached on lawns during the winter. If you’ve been putting that off this summer, you’d better hurry before the sanding trucks start coming again. On the other hand, you might just wait until next spring and do a major cleanup of two winters’ sand deposits.