We’re “knee-deep in June,” as poet James Whitcomb Riley put it in one of my favorite poems. A great lushness has settled over the land, and the days seem extra long now as we approach the summer solstice (June 21), the longest day of the year.
“Ever’thing you hear and see / Got some sort o’ interest,” Riley said of June.
In Georgia’s wild places, knee-deep in June means:
• On barrier island beaches, loggerhead sea turtle nesting is in full swing. Biologists and volunteer beach patrols have found some 450 new nests so far this season.
• Female alligators in the Okefenokee Swamp and other South Georgia wetlands are building nests.
• Female freshwater turtles are leaving ponds and streams to lay eggs. Most of them are the small, colorful painted turtles, but the ones that get most notice are the big snapping turtles. This is also peak nesting time for the gopher tortoise, Georgia’s official state reptile.
• The official state amphibian, the green tree frog, whose call sounds like a nasal “quonk,” is breeding. Other summer-breeding frogs include the Northern cricket frog, Cope’s gray tree frog, squirrel tree frog, bird-voiced tree frog, eastern narrow-mouthed toad and bullfrog. Many of them will move to ponds in response to summer thunderstorms.
• Butterflies and fireflies are flitting about; songbirds are nesting everywhere. Some, including bluebirds and cardinals, are raising their second broods of the year.
• In noisy rookeries across Georgia, the eggs of a variety of wading birds — egrets, wood storks, herons, anhinga, ibises and others — are hatching. At Georgia’s most spectacular rookery, at Woody Pond in the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in coastal McIntosh County, thousands of the birds are nesting.
• White-tailed deer are giving birth to fawns. Remember, don’t disturb a baby deer found alone in the wild. Its mother usually is nearby.
• Orange-colored turk cap lilies and oxeye daisies are blooming along North Georgia’s roadsides.
But this is only a fraction of what’s going on in Georgia’s wild during June. As poet Riley said: “Only jes’ a-wishin … June wuz eternity!”
In the sky: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be last-quarter Tuesday. Mercury is low in the east around dawn. Venus is in the west at dusk and sets about three hours later. Jupiter also is low in the west at dusk and sets a few hours later. Saturn is in the southeast just after dark.
