The Summertime Solstice may perhaps be in June, but for us New Englanders it is July when summer season actually begins. The warmth of the season attracts me outdoors to the prosperity of elegance ideal out my doorstep. Below is what I’ve been looking at so considerably and what I’ll be looking for as we slide toward the “dog days of August.”
New birds look to be all over the place. Fledgling robins, bluebirds and cardinals have mastered the artwork of traveling. Although they don’t have the stunning plumage of their mom and dad, the sight of them is a splendor to behold. They join their mom and dad in teams in our trees, begging for food items. Some are even bold enough to be a part of their moms and dads at the feeder.
It only normally takes these smaller songbirds a number of months to shift from hatch to fledge, however, bald eagles just take months. In our area bald eagle chicks hatch between mid-March and mid-April, and by the time July rolls all around they have mostly taken wing and remaining the nest.
I check a bald eagle nest for the CT DEEP Wildlife Division and retain tabs on all the recognized nests in The Last Eco-friendly Valley. This yr my nest experienced two chicks. By the conclusion of June, I spotted both in nearby trees but however near to the nest. They are successful fledglings with their stunning dim brown feathers with a several white spots. It will be 5 several years just before they have the distinctive pure white head and tail. Considering the fact that 1992, the initial calendar year of described publish DDT fledglings, there have been more than 770 bald eagle chicks in Connecticut.
Is there something additional transfixing than an evening wander in July into a discipline lit up by the blinking very small stars of fireflies? No Fourth of July fireworks screen can compare with what character has been supplying for eons. I confess to being mildly obsessed with them and have been catching them in glass jars by the dozen since I was a kid. I look for them on dry warm evenings when the air is even now. Their mild demonstrate is all about acquiring a mate. Each males and ladies use bioluminescence in the artwork of attraction but only the males fly while the females climb leafy grass stalks or bushes. The display is ephemeral with grownup fireflies only living 2-3 short months. Get pleasure from it though you can.
So lots of flowers are blooming correct now it is not achievable for me to title them all. Our property has lovely blue and purple irises that delighted us again in June. This month it is lilies that bring in our attention with their tall stalks and dazzling orange flowers leaning in direction of the warm July solar.
Our patch of milkweed is now in total bloom, and we’ll be on the lookout for the monarch butterflies that depend on this wild plant. The gorgeous orange and black butterflies are genuinely the “monarchs” of our region’s butterflies. I hope they’ll take a look at our lawn this thirty day period and lay their eggs on the milkweed leaves. It is the desired foodstuff for monarch caterpillars, and we are pleased to retain the patch to invite them for a stop by and to remain for a even though.
This thirty day period there will be lots of mosquitoes and other bugs for our resident bats to feed on. We appear for bats just right after sunset, when there is however adequate gentle to see their frantic flight pattern in excess of the garden and again pasture. This month the female bats will be nursing their pups, so they’ll need plenty of calories from their nightly feeding for milk production. If you’re fortunate, when the pups get older, you may possibly even see the women flying about carrying their youthful. The pups have very long potent legs that aid them cling and keep on limited. The tiny “papoose” is acquiring a flying lesson and learning how to capture insects on its personal.
Attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder and to me, bats are not only awesome traveling mammals, with some reported to reside 30 a long time, but also exquisite animals to take pleasure in by all who experience them.
July is the time when most of our frogs and toads metamorphose. Tadpoles (or pollywogs if you choose) are sprouting legs and transitioning from breathing with gills to lungs. This is one particular of the most obvious transformations in nature and a speculate to see and essentially keep in your hand. Is a frog wonderful? There is an aged indicating, “the coronary heart sees clearer than the eye,” and potentially that is why the princess in the classic Brothers Grimm fairytale kissed the frog to break the spell set upon a handsome prince by a wicked fairy. I never want to kiss a frog to know they are attractive animals and an critical component of our region’s healthier ecosystem.
Are bugs gorgeous? If you have at any time observed a dragonfly up shut, then you’ll know the remarkable mix of colors located on some species – particularly the substantial male widespread green darner dragonfly with shiny green thorax and dazzling blue abdomen. July is when you are going to commence to genuinely see them, in some cases by the hundreds, cruising above ponds and fields feeding on mosquitoes and other insects. Their helicopter flight pattern is a issue to behold.
In July, the heat times and nights bring us into normal get hold of with the elegance of our all-natural earth. I hope you are going to sign up for me as we take a look at The Past Eco-friendly Valley National Heritage Corridor and do the job with each other to treatment for it, delight in it, and move it on.
Invoice Reid is the Chief Ranger of The Previous Environmentally friendly Valley Countrywide Heritage Corridor. He can be achieved at [email protected].