Astronomy

Monday the 19th is the Full Sturgeon Moon, which gets its name because Native Americans considered sturgeon to be easier to catch at this time of year. Birds: Look for Eastern Kingbirds sitting on trees or fenceposts and fly-catching, and Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, and Great Egrets stalking fish, frogs, and crayfish. “Fly-catching” is a hunting technique in which kingbirds and other birds watch for insects and fly after them when they see them, often seeming to hover in the air as they hunt.

Birds

Look for Eastern Kingbirds sitting on trees or fenceposts and fly-catching, and Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, and Great Egrets stalking fish, frogs, and crayfish. “Fly-catching” is a hunting technique in which kingbirds and other birds watch for insects and fly after them when they see them, often seeming to hover in the air as they hunt.

Mammals

Whitetail Deer are preparing for winter by losing their summer red coats and changing over to winter gray. The red color gives them better camouflage in the spring and summer months, while the gray blends in better in fall and winter. The photo on the left is of a deer with its summer red coat. The photo in the middle shows deer in transition, evidenced by the splotchy coloring of the deer on the trail. And the deer on the far right is a buck with antlers in velvet. Antler growth in members of the deer family is the only instance of organ regeneration in mammals. While the antlers are growing they are covered in velvet, and blood vessels run through the antlers up to the velvet. Soon the new antlers grow a coating called a “burr”, underneath the fuzzy velvet. The burr cuts off the blood supply to the velvet and the antlers stop growing. Not long after this happens the bucks will rub the velvet off their antlers, leaving bloody scrapes on trees and rocks.

Amphibians and reptiles

Turtle eggs laid this June are hatching and young turtles are making their way from the nests to the water. The hatchlings are vulnerable to predators as they crawl quickly to the water. Notice how this young snapping turtle’s shell looks like a fallen leaf. And here’s a photo of what that youngster will look like if it survives to adulthood.

Insects

Most people say “butterflies and moths” but it should be “moths and butterflies”. Moths first appear in the fossil record about 190 million years ago. Butterflies didn’t come along for another 100 million years! And there are an estimated 160,000 species of moths on earth, compared with an estimated 17,500 species of butterflies. Here are four species of moths you might see at Afton. The Eight-spotted Forester is a day flier. The Spurge Hawkmoth was introduced from Europe because its larva feed on leafy spurge, a noxious weed that is also native to Europe.

There are plenty of butterflies on the wing, too, and Crickets are chirping in the evening hours. It’s fairly common for older butterflies to have lost part of a wing around the edges, as happened to the American Copper in the photo. Male Tiger Swallowtails are easy to identify because they are always yellow. Female Tiger Swallowtails are sometimes black. And you’re more likely to hear Crickets than you are to see them. They have very long antennae!

Plants

Look for White Snakeroot along the edges of the woods, Partridge Pea in wet areas, and Canada Goldenrod just about everywhere. The leaves of Virginia Creeper (and Woodbine, which looks very similar) are starting to turn red around the edges in a sign that autumn is just around the corner.

Weather observations

Here are some weather observations for this week from past years.

Friday, August 16	2022: 60s in the morning, rising into the 80s; 2020: high near 80°; 2002: record rainfall of 1.92 inches
Saturday, August 17	2022: Muggy with a thunderstorm around 3 pm bringing almost an inch of rain; 2015: 1 inch of rain overnight, in the 70s.
Sunday, August 18	2022: ½” rain in the evening; 2013: 80s and humid
Monday, August 19	2022: rain off and on through day; 2021: Hot and windy day
Tuesday, August 20	2020: temperature in the 80s
Wednesday, August 21	2004: record low of 44°
Thursday, August 22	2023: record high 98°; 2022: Pleasant day with temperature in the 70s; 2020: ½” of rain overnight, then hot and sticky

Photo/Image credits

All photos copyright Nina Manzi, except:

• Dean Lokken: Eastern Kingbird, Great Egret, Snapping Turtle, first and third Whitetail Deer
• Gary Sater: Green Heron, dark Tiger Swallowtail