A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
May
May Day is midway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice / Wild ginger is flowering. Small pollinating gnats and flies warm themselves within the ground-hugging flower / Forty to 250 eggs are being laid singly by each female eastern newt on submerged vegetation / Look for the backs of suckers as they ascend small, stony streams to spawn / Hills are turning a startling new color: light pea green, as almost all the trees except ash unfurl their buds
The new shoots of Japanese knotweed are edible when less than 8 inches tall, perhaps the best use for this invasive, non-native plant / Yellow warblers are here: look for an all-yellow body, with wing feathers edged in yellow, singing sweet sweet sweet shredded wheat / Wet weather over the next month will increase the severity of the inevitable summer mosquito problem / Queen bumblebees are laying their first clutch of eggs, often in abandoned mouse nests
“Swallows fly high, clear blue skies. Swallows fly low, prepare for a blow” / Clintonia, a lovely yellow lily of cool, acidic soils, is beginning to bloom. It’s also called bluebead lily, for its fruits / Blackfly larvae that haven’t been eaten by other insect larvae or trout are emerging as adults / Weety weety weet chew is the signature tune of the magnolia warbler / Male hummingbirds arrive, usually about a week before the females / The rhubarb is ready
While she is gathering nesting material, the female scarlet tanager answers the male with a softer and less harsh version of his song / Fawns are born. They each have 250-350 camouflaging / Green frogs breed over many weeks, from now till August. Some females will lay two clusters of eggs / Lilacs in full flower / Beavers shift their diet to herbaceous plants like cattails, pickerel weed, and water lilies. They will go back to subsisting on bark next winter
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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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© 2008 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
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