A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
August
Raccoons are shifting from a diet that includes a fair amount of animal food to one of mostly fruits, grains, and seeds / Barn and tree swallows are migrating / Live-bearing female garter snakes spend much of the day basking, incubating their developing young at between 29 and 32°C / Red eft is the name given to the juvenile red spotted newts that leave the ponds where they were born and live on land for up to five years before returning to the water
A new moon on August 12 means dark skies and good viewing of the Perseids’ meteor shower peak on August 13 / Look for hummingbirds in patches of jewelweed / Young mink are on their own, but young otters will stay with their parents for several more months / Red-bellied snakes usually give birth in August. Their four to nine offspring are born live / Chipmunks are taking a break, staying underground and eating stored nuts and seeds / First blackberries are ripe
The large, white flower heads of boneset can be seen at the edges of wetlands. Its opposite leaves are fused to one another across the stem, a feature that may have given rise to the name / The tiny woodland jumping mouse can jump more than eight feet. Its nest is a ball of shredded material under a fallen tree / Jewelweed seeds are being propelled up to four feet from their explosive capsules. Jewelweed is an annual, unlike the vast majority of wildflowers
Silverrod, the only goldenrod that isn’t yellow, is blooming / Now a raven’s diet will include corn, blackberries, and other fruits. In winter, it’s back to mostly carrion / Large adult woodchucks are busy eating up to one and a half pounds of food a day / Hummingbirds drop their temperature and metabolism at night to conserve energy. They enter a state of torpor, but since they weigh a mere tenth of an ounce, they can warm and revive themselves quickly
↑ top
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.
-----
© 2007 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
