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It's that time of the year when I'm filled with awe. I've written about this before, and again I'm drawn to write about it.

It's the weather. It's the crispness in the air. It's the puffy clouds and the blue sky.

Is there a better time of the year in our burg? Of course I may be wrong, but I don't think so.

Ralph Terry, a volunteer at Saguaro National Park East, agreed.

"I like it because of the vegetation you don't have in the spring," Terry said.

And with the extra rain this summer, "everything looks healthier," he said.

That would be the creosote bush, the desert marigold, fishhook and hedgehog cacti. The palo verde and mesquite trees are feeling less stress, too.

And if you listen to the American kestrel, the cactus wrens, Lucy's warblers, purple martins, screech owls and western kingbirds, they'll let you know the desert is vibrant this month.

Back East, people wax about their fall season, the changing color of the leaves. Folks in the South have their weather change, as they do in the Midwest and the Northeast.

Southern Arizona has its fall season, too, but a lot of people don't recognize our change of season other than the coolness, said Terry, 66, who came to Tucson from Milwaukee 33 years ago.

Just look at the ocotillo leaves, which have turned yellow and are falling from the plant's long fingers, said Terry.

Carlene Parker, an employee at Tohono Chul Park, near North Oracle and West Ina roads, was equally effervescent about our typical October weather.

"It's the changes," said the Illinois native.

There are noticeable differences in the smell of the plants, the shape of the evening shadows, the size of the clouds and the brilliance of the sunsets, Parker said.

Even the days change from day to day in October, she said.

She enjoys the cooler mornings and evenings, making her walks more comfortable.

I can't imagine who doesn't. While many of us enjoy, even relish, our overheated summer days, we embrace the arrival of October's coolness.

Many people call October their favorite month. Pamela Elslager, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, calls October a "transition month."

It's a transition from discomfort to comfort, from intense to easy, from empty streets to streets clogged with newly arrived seasonal visitors.

Okay, so there are some October features of Tucson that are not all so wonderful.

But there are other species of visitors that begin to appear in these parts during October. They're migratory birds, said Kendall Kroesen, restoration program manager for the Tucson Audubon Society.

Northern nesting birds either pass through or stop in Southern Arizona's mountains and river corridors for the winter, he said.

There are barn swallows and Swainson's hawks, which stop on their way to South America, he said. Staying the winter are yellow-rumped warblers, white-crowned sparrows and ruby-crowned kinglets.

Birds, clouds and cool mornings are what Heather Hatch, who grew up in Tucson, enjoys every day in the month.

"I have always celebrated the first of October," said Hatch, who works at the Audubon Society near the university.

It's that special.