Can you believe we're nearly to the end of November?  Migrations are well underway, colorful leaves are dropping, and snow may even be starting to fall where you are.

But before we make the transition into winter, we'd like to take you on another fall photo tour. What's your favorite thing about fall?

The colors?  

The smells?  

The sounds of ducks over head or leaves crunching underfoot?

Whatever it may be, we hope these images alerts your senses and you can get away for just a moment.  Enjoy!

Sycamore Tree on the Phelan Island Unit on Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge Photo: Justine Belson/USFWS

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Tina Shaw is a public affairs specialist for National Wildlife Refuges and the Office of Law Enforcement in the Midwest Region. She recently relocated to the Midwest from Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge where she worked in Visitor Services. Her interests include natural science illustration and photography.

Physical challenges change your life forever, but they do not have to take away your passion, your grace, or your spirit. Over Veterans Day weekend, I had the opportunity to meet a group of hunters who followed this mindset, regardless of the terrain they traveled in life.

The former Savanna Army Depot, now the Lost Mound Unit of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge in Savanna, Ill. was the backdrop for a special deer hunt for sportsmen with disabilities. Assembling in the early morning hours, long before sun up, 25 hunters and their assistants layered in blaze orange readied their blinds for the hunt.

Quadriplegic hunter Terry Greenwood and Registered Nurse Doug Dalton from Ohio. Greenwood maneuvers his specially mounted gun on target by manipulating a controller box with his chin. When a deer was in the crosshairs, he blew through a tube to engage an electronic trigger to fire the shotgun. Photo by Tina Shaw/USFWS.

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