This week in Greenwich: Alexander McCall Smith meets a Greenwich cold case detective, the hawks come over Quaker Ridge, and the pastors take the dunk tank in Old Greenwich

The polo is over, the ferry has stopped, and the town has quietly turned toward September proper. This is the week the broad-winged hawks move south over the back country, a novelist who has sold a great many detective stories sits down with a detective who actually closes them, and a church on Sound Beach Avenue puts its own clergy over a tank of water for a good cause. Plan the weekend with one date in mind: Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Sunday, September 20, which is also why Art in the Park has moved to October.

Best for families this week: the town's free Fall Festival at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center on Saturday at noon, and the Friends and Family Festival in Old Greenwich that same afternoon, where the dunk tank is the main attraction.

The Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch on the lawn beside the parking lot at the Greenwich Audubon Center, 613 Riversville Road (back country). The season runs August 25 through November 30, and mid September is when it earns its reputation: on a clear day after a cold front, with the wind out of the northwest, counters have logged several thousand broad-winged hawks in a single afternoon. Staff are on the lawn roughly 9 AM to 5 PM on weekdays, with volunteers covering the weekend. There are Adirondack chairs already set out and binoculars to borrow, so the only real requirement is patience and a glance at the forecast, since steady rain or fog ends the count. All ages, outdoors. Details.

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Celebrating Our Mentors, the Women's Mentoring Network gala, at Indian Harbor Yacht Club, 710 Steamboat Road, 5:30 to 9 PM. Dinner, cocktails and music from the Mesha Steele Band, in support of a nonprofit that works on economic independence for low income women. Gifts made anywhere on September 17 count toward a $25,000 match. Ticketed, adults, indoors. Details.

Alexander McCall Smith in conversation with Detective Christy Girard at Dogwood Books and Gifts, 254 East Putnam Avenue, 6 to 8 PM. The author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is here with his newest, The Big Cats Dance Party, and he is being interviewed by a Detective First Grade who works cold cases for the Greenwich Police Department. The stated subject is how a novelist reads human behavior differently from someone who has to prove it in court. One suspects the detective has the better material and the novelist the better endings. The $40 ticket includes the book, wine and charcuterie. Ticketed, adults, indoors. Details.

Friends Friday Films: Clemente in the Berkley Theater at Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, 7 to 8:45 PM. A documentary on Roberto Clemente, built from archival footage and interviews with the man himself, shown for Hispanic Heritage Month. In Spanish and English, rated PG-13. Free, registration required, adults, indoors. Details.

The Greenwich Land Trust turned 50 and buried a letter to 2076. About 100 people gathered on September 9 to mark five decades and 1,014 protected acres across 82 preserves. Executive Director Will Kies, First Selectman Fred Camillo, board president Urling Searle, former board president Louisa Stone and board member Sam Bridge were all on hand, and the evening closed with a time capsule that is not to be opened until September 9, 2076, the trust's hundredth. The line of the night: "Fifty years ago, our founders understood that conserving land was essential to preserving the character of Greenwich." Source: Patch.

Julian Curtiss School finished the third phase of its renovation, and the 80 year old building now has an elevator. The school on East Elm Street, built in 1946 and home to about 230 students from Pre-K through Grade 5, cut the ribbon on new exterior ramps, fully accessible bathrooms, a secure front vestibule, a redesigned main office and a cafeteria rebuilt to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Principal Eduardo Calderón and Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones were joined by Building Committee Chair David Levine and First Selectman Fred Camillo. Dr. Jones put the moment in context: "We have more construction in GPS than since the 1960s," GPS being Greenwich Public Schools. Phase 4 takes on the classrooms and a new nurse's suite. Source: Greenwich Free Press.

A fire badly damaged a classroom at Greenwich Catholic School on a Saturday night. Crews answered an alarm at 471 North Street at about 10:05 PM on September 12, found the fire, and had it under control within 15 minutes. Roughly 30 firefighters responded, nobody was in the building, and no one was hurt. The department credited a working alarm system with keeping the damage to one room. The cause is under investigation by the Greenwich Fire Marshal's Office. Source: Patch.

A curator's tour of Fashioning America: 250 Years of Greenwich Style at the Greenwich Historical Society, 47 Strickland Road (Cos Cob), 11 to 11:30 AM, led by Senior Curator Kathy Craughwell-Varda. Clothing from the Revolutionary era to the present, which is to say two and a half centuries of Greenwich deciding what counts as understated. Book ahead, adults, indoors. Details.

The Fall Festival at the Cohen Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, 90 Harding Road (Old Greenwich), noon to 2 PM. Parks and Recreation brings games, kids' activities, refreshments, a photo station and live music. Free, kids welcome. Details.

Birding at the Bruce with Greenwich Audubon, meeting at the Visitor Services desk of the Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, 1 to 2 PM. A guided walk of about a mile from the Bruce Park playground to Audubon's Oneida Sanctuary, one of the last coastal salt marshes left in town, for herons, egrets and shorebirds. The ground is unpaved and uneven. Free, no museum admission needed, RSVP requested, all ages, outdoors. Details.

9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero in the Bruce Museum auditorium, 1 Museum Drive, 2 to 4 PM. A documentary about the 5,000 people from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut who packed the largest town hall in American history and turned down the city's six rebuilding plans, followed by a discussion with executive producer Carolyn Lukensmeyer. Free, registration through the Avon Theatre only, adults, indoors. Details.

Jerry's Movies: The Lady Eve at Byram Shubert Library, 21 Mead Avenue (Byram), 2 to 4 PM. Preston Sturges, 1941, with Barbara Stanwyck working an ocean liner and Henry Fonda as the heir who never sees it coming. Adults, indoors. Details.

The Friends and Family Festival at First Congregational Church, 108 Sound Beach Avenue (Old Greenwich), 4 to 6:30 PM. A bouncy castle, an obstacle course, face painting, a balloon artist, crafts and a dunk tank staffed by the church's own pastors, who have presumably made their peace with it. Popcorn, cotton candy and ice cream are for sale, and the activities carry small fees. All ages. Details.

Art Adventures: Portrait Studio in the Cohen Education Wing at the Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, 1 to 3 PM. Children make a portrait after Matisse's Marguerite in a Fur Hat, from the William L. Richter Collection. Drop in, no registration. Free with museum admission, ages 4 and up with family, indoors. Details.

Volunteers take a town boat out for the Great Captain Island Clean-Up on Saturday, September 26, 8:30 AM to 1 PM from the Grass Island boat launch, limited to 25 people and registration required. Details.

Hawk Watch Fest at the Greenwich Audubon Center is Saturday, September 26, 7 AM to 4 PM, with live raptors, songbird banding and a rehabilitated hawk released at 3:15. Advance tickets required. Details.

Adopt-A-Dog's 38th Puttin' On The Dog festival fills Roger Sherman Baldwin Park on Sunday, September 27, 10 AM to 4 PM. Adults $25, seniors and children over 5 $10, leashed dogs welcome. Details.

Art in the Park has moved to Sunday, October 4 in Binney Park (Old Greenwich), 10 AM to 5 PM, rain date October 11. Details.

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