Late July belongs to new birds

From mid-July to August is a time in nature when new birds are everywhere.

Young starlings just out of the nest hop awkwardly from limb to limb getting their bearings as fledglings. Speckled robins and brownish redwings are plentiful too. It is only a few short weeks from the nest to the first migration.

This is kindergarten for the fledglings. They have to learn their lessons quickly, and be adapt at applying what they learn, if they are to survive. The first year of a bird’s life is the most dangerous.

Temperatures in the Valley climb into the low 90s, bringing record setting humidity levels. Plants love such conditions, and the birds don’t seem to mind. Summer time in the mountains brings almost daily thunder storms. Sometimes on the mountaintop it is just high hot winds whipping the tree limbs into frenzy, but no rain. Mother Nature will invariably dump the rain into the Valley.

Now is hummingbird time. As the heat mounts, there is suddenly an airy swish and a ruby-throated hummingbird has arrived to inspect the butterfly bush blossoms, and the summer phlox is another favorite. The trumpet vine that persists in spreading is another attractor.

Scientists have determined that when a hummingbird hovers, its wings beat some 55 times a second. When it moves backward, they beat 61 times a second. When the tiny jewel of the air is cruising at top-speed, the wings beat 75 times a second. It is hard to believe that the tiny bird flies over 500 miles over open water when it crosses the Gulf of Mexico during migration. It is a non-stop flight. The tiny hummingbird is one of the gifts of summer that never cease to fascinate bird lovers.

Female hummingbirds select the nest site, build the nest, tend the eggs, and care for the babies. She will not allow the male near the nest. Occasionally a female will return to last year’s nest. Rather than use the old one, she will build a new nest on top of the old one. She feeds the babies, usually two, regurgitated insects, and not the nectar that she eats.

Black bears are winding down from their mating season by the end of July, and then attention is turned to food. They begin to feed heavily to put on fat for winter. It is a record setting year for ticks. Check your pets, and yourself, especially when you have been outside for any length of time. They can carry diseases, cause anemia or even paralysis.

Ticks are parasitic arthropods that feed on the blood of their hosts. They are attracted to warmth and motion. Once the tick is attached, it will not let go until its blood meal is finished. Remember, by no means to all ticks carry disease.

Remove a tick from your skin or that of your pets as quickly as possible. Using fine-tipped tweezers, grab the tick as close to its mouth which will be the part that is stuck in your skin. The body of the tick will be above your skin. Don’t grab the tick around its bloated belly. You could push infected fluid from the tick into your body if you squeezeit. Gently pull the tick straight out until its mouth lets go of your skin or pet’s skin. Do not twist or try to unscrew the tick from your skin. You do not wish to separate the tick’s head from its body, and leave parts of its mouth in your skin. After the tick has been dislodged, wash the area of the tick bite with a lot of warm water and soap. Antibacterial soap will help.

Symptoms of infection from a tick bite should be taken seriously. See your doctor if anyof the following symptoms appear: pain, swelling, redness or heat around the area, red streaks leading from the area, infection draining from the area, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit or groin, and fever or chills. Take a tick bite on you or your pet seriously.

Keep out plenty of water for drinking and bathing. During the hottest days of summer, change your bird water at least daily, and clean out bird baths.

May you always hear the whisper of wings.

The sounds of insects are beginning to define summer

Notice how summer mornings are beginning to become quieter? Many birds are finished nesting, with some completing their second clutches.

Now the sounds of nature are becoming more noisy than musical. It is the sounds ofsummer insects. In the heat of the day cicadas will being to drone on endlessly. Often you will hear large numbers of cicadas sometimes singing in synchrony. They literally pulse from soft to loud and than recede back to soft again. They can lull you into an afternoon nap.

The dog day cicada and the dog days of summer are named for the time of year -- July and August. The star Sirius of the constellation Canis Major –the big dog—is bright in the summer night sky.

The best time to hear summer insects is after dark. It is then that katydids take center stage. Katydids are large green grasshoppers. They are drawn to porch lights. Their green wings are textured, giving them the appearance of leaves. They also have extremely long antennae that arch backward over the length of their bodies. Males sing from early evening well into the night. Their song is non-musical at best...

The voice of the black field cricket is heard from now until frost. Sometimes it is no farther than a corner in the house. In the middle of the night, a cricket in the bedroom can drive a sane person off the rails.

Katydids, crickets and grasshoppers produce their sounds by a mechanical process called stridulating—literally rubbing one body part against another.

Fall webworms are becoming more visible daily. Silk tents are showing up in a variety of shade trees. Caterpillars live inside. As the caterpillars feed and grow, they make the web larger to cover more foliage. When full grown, they drop to the ground to pupate.

The eastern tent caterpillar is sometimes confused with the fall web worm. The tent caterpillar is out in the early spring. Likewise, don’t confuse fall webworms with gypsy moths, which do not make tent-like webs in trees.

Honey bees are busy traipsing from flower to flower. They ensure the food crops and flowers are pollinated. If you step on a honeybee it will sting you. So slip your feet into some shoes before walking through the grass.

Fireflies are becoming more plentiful each evening. They produce light by a chemical reaction. The Blue Ghost fireflies are different from the more ordinary ones that flash their signals back and forth throughout the summer. The blue ghosts glow continuously.

They are mysterious because most people have never seen any and don’t know they exist. The center of their distribution is in the Southern Appalachians, ranging from eastern North Carolina to northern Florida and into Virginia. The DuPont Forest has a good population for viewing. The best place locally to see them is in Transylvania County.

They require high humidity, and dense tree coverage. If you go out in your own back yard in a wooded area, you may see them.

The blue ghosts are about the size of a grain of rice, making them smaller than the more ordinary fireflies. The mysterious nature of the creatures is fascinating.

The praying mantis can be startling to look at, until you examine it closer and find out what a unique creature it is. They eat other insects, which can make them beneficial to most gardens. For an insect, they tend to make fairly good pets. They can live up to three years in captivity.

These are only a few of the most common summer insects. There is a litany of bugs in your yard.

Enjoy the world of insects in the summer heat. They will be gone at the first frost. Keep out plenty of water for drinking and bathing.

May you always hear the whisper of wings.