What are some signs that winter is coming?

Looking around him, Sam notices the approach of winter from the way that the animals behave and how their appearances change. The weasel's normally brown coat, for example, starts to turn white in anticipation of the imminent change of season. Sam also observes that raccoons are looking much fatter than they normally do. He realizes that this means the raccoons are storing fat reserves for the wintertime. Although raccoons don't hibernate, they do hole up in dens during the coldest days of winter, spending most of the time sleeping. Their fat reserves enable them to do this. Another sign of the approaching winter that Sam notices is the sight of squirrels storing food. Like raccoons, squirrels don't hibernate during the winter, but they do prepare for the cold weather by storing lots of food to keep themselves going through the long, hard winter months.