August brings subtle changes in nature in the valley

August brings a change in the light of day. The changes are subtle, but they are there at midday and at dusk. You see the light changes most clearly in the early morning hours just after dawn arrives.
It is still the light of summer, but the shadows lie differently than they did a month ago. There is a feel and a look of gathering haze.
Sunset no longer has its June clarity, and leans more toward a brassy color. Rain-washed air is more dazzling than it was in July.
Each season has its own light. Spring dawn literally sparkles with clarity. During May the middays are tinged with a subtle green to match the color of the new leaves. Fall days are golden, reflecting the season's haze. Winter's light is frosted and silvered. Winter dawns and dusks are wrapped in shades of blue light and purple. The shadows of winter are long, regardless of the time of day. The light of July and August dazzle with heat.
The sphinx moths are busy working the flower gardens now. Some folks call them hawk moths while others refer to them as hummingbird moths. They are winged marvels wearing quiet beauty of dark grays and browns and some have a dab of olive green. Each has a long sucking tube, coiled beneath its head. When it prepares to feed, it uncoils the tube and plunges it deep into the nectar of flowers. At one time it was a
hungry caterpillar attacking the tomatoes.
Goldenrod is in bloom, and mikweed is in its shed stage, sending silk parachutes carrying seeds floating on summer breezes. More sumac than usual is showing early color. The summer's drought is beginning to catch up with the season, allowing us a glimpse of the face of Autumn ahead of the calendar.
Katydids are green grasshoppers with built-in fiddles that play a somewhat monotonous three-note tune. They are in full voice every evening now. In nature, the katydid has a reputation to live up to as a prophet. Supposedly when you hear the katydid's first tune in late July, it is three months until the first frost. When one hears the katydid call during the daytime, usually in mid-August, it is supposed to be just six weeks until the first frost. There is no doubt that when the katydid begins to scratch the night with its tune,
the bloom is definitely fading from the roses of summer.
The katydid is heard at night, and the cicada plays a tune during the daytime. To some, the katydid seems to make the call, "Katydid, Katydid" over and over.
During the later part of July and throughout August until frost, katydids join a host of night criers, making the time of the year the noisiest. Only the male sings, and the female hears with ears located near her knees. It is the first frost that silences the night criers for another hear.
As August progresses,the katydid is joined by other night scratches.
Some resemble the katydid, and others are kinfolks, like crickets. All saw away at the night making sounds that only insects can make.
Joe-pye weed is in bloom and with its unfolding come the swallowtail butterflies floating lazily above the big pink heads. They land frequently to siphon nectar. The female looks like a dark shadow of a tier swallowtail. She is smoky-black with marginal yellow spotting at the bottom of the wing. There are squadrons of bumblebees accompanying the swallowtails.
The Joe-Pye-weed is named for a Native American, Joe Pye, who used the plant to cure typhus. It is a plant of short-lived beauty. Its flowers fade quickly, and give way to the ragweed plant. Ragweed is in its glory when the early fall's breezes work as a pollinator. The sneezes start, and drive those allergic to carrying boxes of tissue with them for several weeks.
Hummingbirds are beginning to migrate so look for more and more around the feeders fattening for the trip south. Wild grapes are ripening, and snapping turtle eggs are beginning to hatch. Copperhead babies are at least a week, and some are two weeks old. Bluebirds and robins are beginning to feast on the berries of dogwoods.
May you always be blessed with the whisp of wings.

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