I once heard that if Rip Van Winkle had awakened from his 20-year slumber in late August, he surely would have known the time of year because late August has a look, a feel and a sound of its own.
With daylight rapidly dwindling and the nights getting longer, shadows lie differently now than just a month ago. Reckoned from June 20, when the summer solstice marked the year‘s longest day, we’re losing nearly two minutes of daylight per day — which will total nearly an hour for the entire month.
Bird song has quieted: Most songbirds have wrapped up their nesting seasons and are completing their annual molts (replacing old feathers with new ones). Migratory birds are preparing to head south for the winter. Several, including male ruby-throated hummingbirds, already have departed for winter grounds in Latin America.
The traditional sound-makers of late summer — dog day cicadas and grasshoppers during the day; katydids and crickets at night — serenade us now with their monotonous buzzing, droning and chirping.
August is a time of new life. Squirrels and chipmunks are giving birth to their second litters of the year. In South Georgia’s swamps and wetlands, baby alligators are hatching and may be heard “clucking” to their mothers. The young of many of Georgia’s 44 snake species — corn snake, rat snake, Eastern racer, indigo snake (endangered), copperhead, coral snake and many others — also are hatching out or being born alive, depending on the species.
Hatching, too, are baby pond slider turtles, eastern box turtles and, in the sandhills, gopher tortoises. On coastal beaches, baby loggerhead sea turtles are emerging from sandy nests and trying to make their way to the ocean before predators snatch them.
Goldenrod, asters, ironweed, Joe-pye weed, cardinal flower and many other late summer wildflowers are blooming over most of Georgia.
Don’t forget to participate in the Great Southeastern Pollinator Census next weekend (Aug. 22-23). More information: gsepc.org/
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, retired Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon is last quarter today. Mercury is low in the east just before dawn. Venus and Jupiter rise out of the east a few hours before dawn. Mars is low in the west and Saturn rises in the east just after dark.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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