A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
September
The plaintive, three-note, whistling song of the eastern wood pewee can still be heard, although most of these flycatchers have headed out by now / North winds and a sunny day after a storm will greatly increase the number of migrating hawks. Look for them in the middle of the day / Wood turtle eggs hatch. It takes the hatchlings 11 to 12 years to become sexually mature / Flickers and other woodpeckers are now eating and spreading poison ivy seeds
White-tailed deer are beginning to shed their summer coats and grow new, thick, winter ones. The outside hairs are hollow, and beneath is a dense undercoat / Catbirds are fattening up on almost any fruit or berry you can think of. They will soon leave our area to winter from the Gulf Coast south to Costa Rica / Puffs of the plumed seeds of wild clematis are often seen fairly high in trees / Most of the birds traveling through our area now are warblers
Black cherries are ripe / Mourning cloak butterflies are fattening up for hibernation. They overwinter as adults and can be seen flying in spring before the snow melts / Blue jays are planting acorns, but only sound ones, and often these are carried a long distance from the parent tree. Some blue jays move south, but others stay all winter / Monarchs are emerging from their chrysalises and lazily heading south / Asters and later goldenrods are going to seed
Patches of bracken are now one-third green, one-third yellow, and one-third brown / The prickly, inflated pods of wild cucumber have dried up and become paper-thin. Light as feathers, the pods may be blown about, releasing seeds as they go / Cold weather now will send deer mice and cluster flies indoors / Buck white tailed deer are rubbing the velvet off their antlers as they prepare for the rutting season / Colors are turning on trees at higher elevations
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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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© 2007 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
