A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
July
The full complement of summery flowers is blooming: daisy, black-eyed Susan, sweet white clover, and red clover are a few that go especially well together / The first barn swallow fledglings are catching their own food, and the female is sitting on a new clutch of eggs / Each species of firefly has its own flash pattern. Males are sending luminescent signals to females hidden in the grass / Japanese beetles are out of the ground and heading for the roses
The nectarless flowers of jack-in-the-pulpit smell like fungus and are pollinated by fungus gnats / Northern water shrews dive to the bottoms of streams to feed on the larvae of caddisflies, mayflies, stoneflies, and other small creatures / Wild turkey hens and their poults may join others to form family flocks of 30 or more birds / Within 24 hours of hatching and well before they can fly, wood ducklings drop many feet from the nest cavity without injury
Spittlebug froth prevents the bug within from drying out and acts to deter some predators. At a minimum, it serves as an early warning system, allowing the bug to hop away / Syrphid flies, often boldly patterned in black and yellow, feed on flowers and are sometimes mistaken for bees / Spring peepers begin to transform into adults. At about one-half-inch long, they are leaving their natal ponds for a terrestrial existence / Joe Pye weed is flowering
Peak of Southern Delta Aquarids will occur on the night of July 27 / Blooming orchids: showy lady’s slipper, rose pogonia, white fringed orchis, purple-fringed orchis, leafy white-orchis / Blueberries are ripe / Northern leopard frogs are active on rainy nights and often move to the warmth of paved roads / Little brown bats are giving birth. Pregnant females have been roosting communally to maintain the high body temperature needed for rapid embryo development
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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.
