The beauty of autumnal maple leaves appears through a screen door. Just as the green summer fattens and strengthens the creatures of Vermont, fall cuts crisply into the bounty by sending migrating animals south, silencing chirping birds and insects, and running deer and bear out of the forests until hunting season ends.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Vermont: Suite of Seasons," September 1998, National Geographic magazine)