It's that time of year again, the Earth's northern hemisphere is tipping away from the warmth of the Sun. Days in the north are getting cooler and shorter, leaves are changing, animals migrating and many harvests are underway. The wet summer in New England this year should make 2009 a banner year for brightly-colored fall foliage in the area. Collected here are a group of photographs of recent Autumn scenes around the northern hemisphere.
1. A group of Common Cranes gather in dawn light, on a lake in the German state of Brandenburg, close to Berlin September 26, 2009. From September to November tens of thousands of Cranes use the rural area close to the German Capital for a stopover during their migration from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to their wintering quarters in Spain. The agricultural plains surrounding Berlin are among the biggest crane roosts in Europe with several tens of thousands birds gathering during the peak of migration. (REUTERS/Thomas Krumenacker)
2. The foliage was starting to turn near Presque Isle, Maine on Friday, September 25, 2009. Scientists say this will be a banner year for foliage in New England - the wet weather earlier in the summer along with the last weeks of warm days and cool nights should result in dramatic color. (Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)
3. Caitlin Snow, 2, walks through a Gladiator Pumpkins on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 on Connors Farm in Danvers, Massachusetts. Connors Farm owner Robert Connors had to ship the pumpkins in from Michigan because of his low yield this year. Heavy summer rains encouraged black rot (Didymella) and Phytophthora Blight among his crops. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)
4. A rutting stag bellows in a wildlife park in Aurach near Kitzbuehel, in the Austrian province of Tyrol, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. (AP Photo / Kerstin Joensson)
5. A tree-covered hill near Presque Isle, Maine as seen at dawn on Saturday, September 26, 2009. (Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)
6. The white steeple of the United Church of Christ in Keene, New Hampshire, surrounded by seasonal foliage. (Arthur Boufford/Boufford Photography)
7. A combine harvests wheat in a field south of Chapman, Kansas as the winter wheat harvest continues its northward migration across the state on June 23, 2009. Amid a global glut of wheat stockpiles, grain elevators across parts of the Great Plains remain crammed with unsold winter wheat as facilities brace for expected bumper fall harvests of corn, sorghum and soybeans. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
8. A central Illinois corn and soybean farmer races against the setting sun to harvest his cornfield in Loami, Illinois on Monday Oct. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
9. Fall foliage meets with an early snow in Franconia, New Hampshire on Thursday, Oct. 1,2009. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
10. Fog rises off a lake in Highlands, New York on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
11. Ivica Martinic harvests grapes to make "Varenik" on the island of Brac in Croatia October 3, 2009. Varenik, a sweet side-dish, is made by boiling the pressed grapes for between 20 and 30 hours. (REUTERS/Matko Biljak)
12. Zinfandel grapes sit in a bin at Tres Sabores Winery September 25, 2009 in St. Helena, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
13. 10-year-old Bin Amin, a Kashmiri Bakerwal or nomad boy, carries a lamb over his shoulders while walking with his herd of goats and sheep in Srinagar October 5, 2009. Bakerwals walk for miles with their cattle through the mountains during summer in search of arable pastures and move back to lower ground during the winter. (REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli)
14. A shepherd leads his herd to grazing grounds down from the mountains along a tunnel in Zakinskaya hollow, about 70 km (44 miles) south of Vladikavkaz, Russia on October 5, 2009. (REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev)
15. Misty fields and patches of autumn-colred forest are seen in this view near Presque Isle, Maine on September 25, 2009. (Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)
16. A woman reads among fallen leaves on a warm autumn afternoon in St James's Park in London September 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Luke MacGregor)
17. A skein of pink-footed geese fly beneath the moon as they prepare to land at the Vane Farm nature reserve near Loch Leven in Fife, Scotland October 8, 2009. Around 20,000 pink-footed geese stop off at the nature reserve each year, some to 'refuel' and some stay, as they migrate to the south for the winter from Iceland. (REUTERS/David Moir)
18. With the autumn foliage in the background, a group paddles their sinking fishing boat to shore at Cottonwood Lake, near Buena Vista, Colorado on September 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)
19. Decorated cows walk along a street in Schwaz, about 15km (10 miles) east of Innsbruck, Austria on September 25, 2009. At the end of the summer season, farmers move their herds down from the Alps to the valley into winter pastures. (REUTERS/ Dominic Ebenbichler)
20. Farmers and some twenty cows cross the Koenigssee lake on a wooden ferry, near Schoenau, southern Germany, on October 3, 2009 as they bring their cattle back to their farms after the animals spent the summer in the mountains. (STEFFI LOOS/AFP/Getty Images)
21. An Amish farmer and three children bring in a cart full of harvested corn stalks at a farm in Middlefield, Ohio on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
22. Lyn Walters, 71, fly fishes in the Merrymeeting River in Alton, New Hampshire, as fall leaves begin to change Thursday, Oct. 8,2009. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
23. People in costumes, Halloween pumpkins and ghoulish mannequins decorate the amusement park "Tivoli" in central Copenhagen, Denmark, Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, for a ten day celebration of the Halloween season, during the school autumn holidays. (AP Photo/POLFOTO, Carsten Snejbjerg)
24. A man takes a picture of a colony of coral grass, or glasswort, at Lake Notoro in Abashiri, on Japan's nothern island of Hokkaido September 22, 2009. Many people visit the lake to enjoy the scenery of the plant which grows in salt marshes and turns to crimson red between late September to October. (REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao)
25. Cranberries are harvested near Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association, Andy Manis)
26. Rockefeller Center was transformed into a 139-square-meter (1,500-square-foot) free standing cranberry bog with 907kg (2,000 pounds) of cranberries on October 7th, 2009 as Ocean Spray celebrated its 80th anniversary harvest. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
27. A rainbow appears over the covered bridge connecting Windsor, Vermont (left side) and Cornish, New Hampshire (right) on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
28. Growers stand by their giants during the annual Giant Pumpkin Contest at the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, Massachusetts on October 3rd, 2009. The contest was won by Bill Rodonis (center) from Litchfield, New Hampshire, weighing in at 1471.60 pounds. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
29. Druids celebrate the Autumn equinox on Primrose Hill on September 22, 2009 in London, England. The ceremony is one of three events staged by the order with the Spring Equinox ceremony at Tower Hill and the Summer Solstice held at Stonehenge. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
30. Peter Sterrett of Tiverton, Rhode Island, paddles with his dog Cody on a pond in Derry, New Hampshire on Sunday morning, October 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
31. Turkeys roam at Hook House farm in Kirby Fleetham, northern England, October 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Nigel Roddis)
32. An aerial view of a patch of forest near Presque Isle, ME on Friday, September 25, 2009. (Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)