August 5th, 2007
around the next corner
I usually go for a walk around sunset each evening. We continue to have what, to me, seem to be spectacular sunsets. Last night, steely gray clouds glowed beneath, lit by the sun sinking beyond the forested horizon.
We’ve had a week of very hot, humid weather. Fortunately, there’s been some relief by evening as the temperature has dropped a few degrees at night. This weekend, I’ve noticed the odd yellow leaf among the green on the Ash and Manitoba Maples. The white and pink blooms of the wildflowers in the meadows are now giving way to golds. It won’t be long until the violet and purple of the autumn asters appear. The insects have progressed from those of spring and early summer, to those of midsummer, and now to late summer. This week, I’ll post photos of insects associated with the latter part of the season. Autumn isn’t quite in the air, but I sense it lurking around the next corner. I don’t know how others feel, but I’m always a little sad to see the gradual shifting of the summer season. Perhaps it goes back to those days when my family had a cottage on the Ottawa River. As kids, we were never quite able to ignore the calendar and the march of days leading back to the city and another year of school. I very much disliked school, and cities, and leaving the cottage each year. A little of that feeling remains several decades later.
We found this Monarch caterpillar while out for a walk in the fields yesterday (click on images for larger views). He or she is almost ready to pupate. I’m not tagging Monarchs this year, but did bring a couple of caterpillars indoors to rear and release. The butterfly in the photo below is one of those which I raised and released. It’s a female that eclosed on August 1st. It won’t be all that long until this and other Monarchs begin their southward migration.
Tags: Monarch, Danaus plexippus
August 5th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Our summer hasn’t been quite as warm as yours except for that one week of 95F temps. We’re seeing a change in the birds that come to the feeder, and the sunrise songs are much quieter. The last of our Swallows fledged this morning, after quite a bit of coaxing from adults and various juvie “friends.” I feel autumn right around the corner too, and most especially in the angle of the setting sun. The light changes here so quickly.
Beautiful sunset pic and a gorgeous monarch.
August 5th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Oh Bev, I’m trying to stay in the moment and not dwell on the diminishing light. But, yes – the colors, sounds – even the smells – announce the coming of Autumn. I know they’ll be a great deal of beauty to celebrate as the year wanes. But I know I’ll start turning on lights earlier every evening to push back a little at the lengthening nights.
How wonderful that your sunsets have been so lovely. How neat to release a butterfly.
I found teensy little yellow oval up-right eggs under a milkweed pod. Are they monarch?
August 5th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
I particularly like that first photo, of the clouds and sunset. I can imagine being there and feeling that particular stillness in the air.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
We’re on the opposite tack here Bev, sensing Spring just around the corner. Wildflowers are starting to appear, and I saw a magpie yesterday with a beak full of nesting material.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
robin – the light changes quickly here as well. I’m noticing it all of a sudden. It may even be the light that’s causing me to think about autumn.
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Cathy – As must as possible, I’m trying to live in the moment too, but as I was saying to Don while we were out walking in the woods yesterday, my interest in insects causes me to be more aware of the changing season. As I look about me, everywhere it is written, “Autumn is coming!”
The egg that you saw might well be a Monarch egg. They are white when first laid on the leaf, but they do seem to pick up some yellow coloration once they’ve been on the leaf for awhile.
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Wren – Thanks! I’m glad that the stillness in the air showed up as that’s just how it was.
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Duncan – Irrational as it is, sometimes I find it difficult to imagine all of us being in the same season!