A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
August
The larvae of some green lacewings are wolves in sheep’s clothing. In colonies of woolly aphids, they disguise themselves by applying aphid wool to their backs, and, undetected, they feed on the aphids / In summer, deer roam on a fairly small territory of about 200 acres, though bucks range farther than does / Grasshoppers are sizing up enough to attract the interest of kestrels / Northern brown snakes are born live after a gestation period of about 110 days
The August 12 Perseid meteor shower promises to be quite rich / Hermit thrushes have an extended breeding season and will continue to sing after most other birds have fallen silent / The positive side of the earwig: the female lays about 30 eggs and stays with them until a few days after they hatch. Earwigs are omnivorous and eat mites and insects as well as your flowers. The nasty-looking pincers are used in defense / Check the woods for woodland asters
The whinny call of screech owls may be heard now, when young owls are establishing their own territories / Tiny pickerel frogs, about 1 inch long, are climbing ashore, having spent roughly three months as tadpoles / The messy nests of fall webworms begin to be visible near the tips of tree branches, especially along roads / Praise the northern redbelly snake, for slugs are a big part of its diet. These snakes are now giving birth to up to 21 live snakelets
Nickel-sized painted turtles are hatching. They will stay put for the winter and move to water next spring / Adult alder flea beetles will soon head for their hibernation sites / Time to destroy white pine leaders that have been killed by the white pine weevil and to prune all but the biggest lateral branch just below so that this branch can become the new leader / The meadow jumping mouse eats jewelweed and other seeds, along with subterranean fungi
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These listing are from observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on you latitude, elevation - and the weather.
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© 2006 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
