Gardeners don’t have it easy. There is always something that has us fretting. The predation of the fruit on my apple trees is one of those things. Squirrels and chipmunks are the usual felons but today I saw a Blue Jay pecking viciously and repeatedly at one of my apples. Can you imagine! But this is only peripherally related to getting out so I mustn’t belabour the point.
This hot, dry summer is already stealing past. The angle of the sun and the shortening days are telling us so. Let that thought spur you on to get out because there’s always lots of interest.
The osprey is happy, and so am I. Out walking this morning I saw the osprey fishing on the millpond. Earlier in the season he/she was harassed by numerous kinds of birds: crows, grackles, blackbirds–even swallows; but now that all those birds are no longer protecting nestlings the osprey is allowed to fish in peace. I have often watched as this poor, beautiful bird was pestered, even to the point of dropping its hard-won fish. I expect that when the millpond is dredged the new depth of water will allow more fish and better fishing for this wonderful bird.
We often don’t notice that something is absent. When the heat first hit I wasn’t aware of the absence of the song of the cicada–it was only when they started singing that I realized they had been missing. And the same goes for the crickets. They started chirping sometime last week. And that made me aware of their absence. Recently I was reading a very interesting old gardening column. The author was writing about keeping records and he wrote that Thomas Jefferson kept meticulous records that are useful to us today. I went to my own records and to my shame I found I had not kept track of the first cicada or the first cricket. I vow to do better.
The shadier areas of our trails are wonderful places to escape the heat and intense sun. Medd’s Mountain is one that most of us can easily get to. On this trail keep your eye out for different ferns. There are at least four kinds. Some have the usual “ferny” leaf (pinnate or bi-pinnate if you want to get technical), and there is great variety, while at least one variety has quite a broad, non-compound leaf. I really must write in-depth on the interesting and “prehistoric” method ferns use to make new plants. It goes back to the age of the dinosaur if not beyond.
Many of our nesting birds have now raised their young and the males have stopped singing their mating songs. But the goldfinches have only begun nesting. They typically wait until the thistles, their preferred food, have begun setting seed. The old undercoat of my dog that I groom out makes dandy nesting material. I hang it up in a suet cage. Earlier the orioles were taking it and now the goldfinches are lining their nests with it too.
A farewell to a fellow early morning walker. Sadly, Ross Gillis has died. I met him often as we both enjoyed our early morning walk near the millpond. We would eagerly exchange information on interesting recent sightings. He won’t see the completion of the new dam. And that’s a shame because it would have fascinated him.
The summer is ebbing away but there’s lots to see. The Joe-Pye-Weed is just coming into bloom and a Monarch Butterfly feeding on it is a sight to behold. Get out! And enjoy!
By Glen Spurrell
