Throw Back Thursday (TBT):
What can we expect outdoors in early July? Click here for my prediction, written in 2009: Milkweed or What to Look for in Early July.
In 2009 I described how to find monarch butterfly eggs on milkweed leaves. Sadly, monarchs have declined so precipitously in six years that they’re very hard to find today in western Pennsylvania.
(close-up of Common Milkweed by Marcy Cunkelman)
Today, on 21 June 2015, the sun will reach its northernmost point, the northern solstice, at 12:38pm.
In northern Europe this is Midsummer Day, celebrated with enormous bonfire festivals in Scandinavia, Finland, Latvia and Estonia. Midsummer folklore includes old stories that spirits and witches roam the night so bonfires were set to keep them away.
Shakespeare embellished on folklore in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His fairies cast spells on each other. Titania fell in love with Bottom.
If you celebrate this evening outdoors, be careful not to fall in love with an ass. 😉
(Midsummer festival fire in Lapeenranta, Finland and Scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania and Bottom by Edwin Lanseer, both from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the captions to see the originals)
7 June 2015
Lots of big thistles are blooming now by the road to Duck Hollow in Pittsburgh. At first I couldn’t identify them but my guess was that anything growing so well by the road was probably alien and invasive. I was right.
Nodding thistle or musk thistle (Carduus nutans) is a biennial from Eurasia that came to this continent by accident, perhaps in ballast water. It thrives in disturbed soil at roadsides and landslides and in heavily grazed pastures. It’s a thorn in the side for cattle farmers and an alien invasive.
A view of the entire plant shows many thorns and the reason why its called “nodding.”
Despite its mean reputation, I think it’s beautiful. The buds look like reddish-purple star bursts as they open.
And the color of the flower is outstanding. My favorite view is too wide for this blog’s narrow format so click here for a closeup of color without thorns.
(photos by Kate St. John)
Throw Back Thursday: A Southwestern Pennsylvania Phenology for Late May and Early June
As we head into late May and early June the natural world is gearing up for the solstice. Here’s a hint of what you’ll see and hear:
Now’s the best time to observe Nature and, frankly, I’d much rather be outdoors than at my computer. So I’m going out to enjoy it!
(photo of a female chestnut-sided warbler by Chuck Tague)
p.s. When I wrote this article in 2009 we didn’t have the crazy weather we’re experiencing this spring: temperatures in the 30’s, then the 90’s, then back again to the 30’s this weekend. What a Weather Yo-yo!
Last weekend’s new leaves in Schenley Park demonstrated that the city is warmer than the suburbs. Schenley’s leaves unfurled on May 1 while the suburbs were still brown.
Above, new red oak leaves. Below, sugar maple.
This white ash sapling opened its leaves like a crown. Tiny ash saplings aren’t eaten by emerald ash borer because their stems are too narrow for the bug to use.
For dramatic leaf-out, you can’t beat a shagbark hickory. This bud was just about to unfurl …
And … Boom!
Three days later the leaves now produce shade.
Take a look at tree covered hillsides as you drive north or south and you’ll notice leaf-out moving north 13 miles a day — except in the city.
(photos by Kate St. John)
The beginning of May is a birder’s paradise. Spring migration hits full stride. Of course there are great birds at the “hotspots,” but unexpected species may stop in your backyard on their way north.
Here’s just a taste of the excitement in early May:
Take part in some outings to see the sights of May.
(scarlet tanager in flight above new oak leaves. photo by Chuck Tague)
Warbler migration is ramping up and we’re already craning our necks to see them. Up to now it’s been easy to find birds in the leafless trees but that’s about to change.
In Schenley Park the box elders burst into flower and leaf last week (above), the Norway maples opened last weekend, and the oaks and hickories are blooming now.
Here’s a red oak twig on April 19 just before the buds burst. Who knew they could grow so long!
Inevitably the warblers gravitate to the leafy trees where they’re hard to find, prompting the common complaint, “The leaves are hiding the birds. I wish the leaves weren’t there!”
But if the leaves weren’t there, the birds wouldn’t be either.
Insects time their egg-hatch and larval growth to take advantage of leaf out. These tentworms appeared in Schenley Park when the choke cherries opened their leaves.
Leaf out brings insects. Insects bring warblers. It’s a symbiotic relationship between birds and trees.
The trees are probably happier than we are to see the warblers arrive.
(tree photos by Kate St. John. Blackpoll warbler by Chuck Tague)
As I mentioned yesterday, spring wildflowers are now blooming in southwestern Pennsylvania. Here’s a sample of what Dianne Machesney, Donna Foyle, and I found in our outdoor travels last week. Check the captions for the flower names, locations and dates.
(photos by Kate St. John, Dianne Machesney, and Donna Foyle)
Spring is off to a slow start this year. Last month I predicted coltsfoot would bloom in March but it didn’t appear in Schenley Park until April 4. Since the city is always warmer than the countryside I’m sure many of you are still waiting for coltsfoot.
Despite my poor March prediction I’m going to make one for April. Maybe spring will “catch up” this month. If so, you can expect to find…
Here’s a taste of Spring to come.
It’s a good month to be outdoors.
(photo credits: Yellow-throated warbler by Steve Gosser. Bloodroot and spicebush by Kate St. John)
p.s. Yellow-throated warblers are southern birds that are expanding their range northward. They’re in southwestern PA but not northern … yet.
On a global scale, 2014 was the warmest year ever recorded but climate change is complicated on the local level. In Pittsburgh we’ve changed into yo-yo extremes.
Pittsburgh’s last two winters were colder than normal but three years ago it was really hot. Spring came six weeks late in 2014 and six weeks early in 2012. This photo of leaves opening on March 25, 2012 is impossible during this year’s cold spring.
I noticed the changes in 2012 but wouldn’t have remembered them if I hadn’t taken a picture. That’s the beauty of keeping a nature journal and it caught the attention of climate journalist Julia Kumari Drapkin. She noticed that local experience of climate change is ahead of the science curve and often raises interesting questions so she decided to flip the typical reporting model and founded the iSeeChange crowd-sourced almanac. Everyday observations and questions now become radio stories.
Fast forward to 2015 and iSeeChange has radio partners across the U.S. and in Africa. The Allegheny Front joined last month so now western Pennsylvanians can record what we see and ask questions about what’s going on in our area.
Last month I signed up for iSeeChange as a quick way to record the signs of spring. In Pittsburgh it’s been cold and variable (click here for the Allegheny Front’s story) but the weather’s different out West. Colorado is hot and already has mosquitoes!
You can contribute, too. As Julia says, “Everyone’s an expert in his own backyard.” Click here to join the iSeeChange almanac.
Post your observations. Upload photos and sound clips. Ask about what puzzles you.
Outdoor changes are always interesting. Maybe yours will be on the radio.
Listen to The Allegheny Front in Pittsburgh on WESA-FM 90.5 every Saturday at 7:30am and on other stations in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia at the times listed here. You can also listen any time online at The Allegheny Front.
(photo by Kate St. John)