Monday, August 25, 2014

Phenology: Hot Sunny August Day

People are complaining about it. I don't know. All winter the radio was blaring a song about someone wanting it to be "Sunny and Seventy-Five," as in 75 degrees Fahrenheit (about 25 degrees Celsius). Today that's what we've got and people wish it were cooler. Heat and humidity are expected to rise for the next few days. We should enjoy this relatively pleasant day while it lasts. So I'm enjoying it...inside the air-conditioned computer center.

Flowers I saw on the way to the computer center today included three that are typical of early summer: crown vetch, oxeye daisies, red clover; and four that are typical of this time of year: jewelweed, morning glories, chicory, wild mustard.

Due to chemical spraying, I've seen very few birds and butterflies on Route 23 this summer. I did see *one* bird this morning that was not a crow, possibly a kingbird. I've seen one pair of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies near Route 23 in the month of August...in years when the land was not poisoned, sometimes there would be hundreds of them.

(Tiger Swallowtail image from Breon Warwick at Morguefile.)


No comments:

Post a Comment