A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
June
This is peak time for bird songs. Hermit thrushes, magnolia warblers, and yellow-throats continue to sing well after dusk / Female wood turtles are nesting near water, usually laying their 4 to 18 eggs in the evening / Beavers give birth, usually to three to five young. The size of the litter may be related to the available food supply / Wild turkey eggs are hatching. The chicks will be able to fly and will begin roosting in trees in about two weeks / Moose are born
The attractive, flat, reddish beetles of the locust leafminer are out. These adults will chew on the leaves of black locust, but it’s the larvae, starting in July, that can turn locust trees from green to pale brown / Snapping turtles have been around for over 60 million years. Their small shells make them vulnerable - and defensive - when they come ashore to lay eggs / First batch of bluebirds are out of the nest; phoebes and robins begin second nesting - the first fledglings are on their own
This year’s male bear cubs now weigh about 40 pounds and females about 35 pounds / In conifer forests, the fragrant, nodding flowers of one-flowered pyrola are opening / One good thing about black flies is that they go to bed early; not true of mosquitoes or no-see-ums / Look for yellow robber flies hanging around beehives, sometimes gobbling up pollen-laden bees as they come home from work / Peak fledging time for bobolinks in fields that have not been mowed yet
It’s wild strawberry time / Young great blue herons, almost ready to fledge, are walking on the branches that hold up their nest / Chipmunks are busy harvesting shadbush fruits / Hummingbirds get protein from eating insects trapped in sap or nectar and have been know to pilfer them from spider webs / Thistle seeds are the goldfinch’s favorite food; plus, goldfinches and purple thistle look good together
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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.
