How I know it is August...

How do I know it's August? It's not just the calendar flipped open to the August page. It's not the back to school flyers in the mail or the multiple displays down nearly every aisle in every store selling notebooks, pencils, paper, folders, crayons, backpacks, Trapper Keepers (wait... do they sell those anymore?), and the like. It's not the whispers of who will be division champs in baseball this season (not the Twins this year...) or the hopes of a promising post-season. It's not the beginning of pre-season football either. The commercials for the Minnesota State Fair are on television (August 25th to September 5th!), and everyone is trying to get in that last vacation before September (and inevitably autumn) arrives. And for me it is not even my stuffy sinuses from all the ragweed and grasses in bloom (turns out I have a mild allergy to grasses and I moved to a state with lots of prairie grasses).

Indian Grass in bloom.

Though all of these things do remind me it is August, there are other little details that tell me August is here and we have one final full month of summer to enjoy.

So what are these details? For starters, the red-winged blackbirds are quiet. Way back in the final days of winter when snow still covered the ground but Mother Nature allowed the first 50 degree days of the year, the first red-winged blackbirds returned to Minnesota. I heard my first "conklaree!!!" on March 15th this year (what a great birthday present for me!) and I knew winter couldn't hold it's grip upon us forever. Then for the next several months (right through June), those red-winged blackbirds called and called all day long - "CONKLAREE!!!!!!" - from the wetland by my house and right outside my window where they feasted on the bird seed we put out for the returning song birds. "CONKLAREE!!!!!" At sun up on the some of the longest days of the year (ie: early sunrise) on a Saturday the call of the red-winged blackbird is not always a welcomed sound. It was joyous to hear it on March 15th, but by June 15th I was ready for some quiet. Here it is nearly August 15th and the red-winged blackbirds are quiet. No early AM "CONKLAREE!!!". No flesh of red as they belt out a call.

I really took notice of this the first week of August as I brought groups of Minneapolis summer school 4th graders on birding walks in the Garden and down by the ponds across from Wirth Beach. The ponds were a sure thing in July for a close up look at a male red-winged blackbird and maybe even a fleeting glance at a female as she went to and from her reedy hanging basket nest. During that first week in August, I took my groups down to the ponds and faced silence. No "CONKLAREES". It's August now. It's no longer time to protect nests or establish territories. It's time to start thinking about leaving Minnesota. I miss the early AM "CONKLAREE" wake up calls (though ask me in May next year and see what I say!), but I know that next mid-March the first males will arrive and they will sit across the street in the wetlands by the Mississippi River and belt out their calls claiming their territory.

Insects. There are lots of them up in the prairie at the Eloise Butler Wildflower Sanctuary. Signs of them are everywhere - from chewed up leaves to leaf miner trails to insect galls. You can't not find a soldier beetle on a yellow flower in the prairie.

Soldier Beetles on Canada Goldenrod

You can't miss the big fat bumblebees that buzz about from flower to flower. They are everywhere! They make city kids flinch and scream. They make nature kids squeal with delight. They make adults exclaim, "Did you see the size of that thing?!" They make me smile. I could watch them buzz about the prairie all day long. I've been known to take many photos of bees on flowers.

The closer you look at flowers and plants, the more you will begin seeing insects and arachnids. These first few weeks of August I have led several insect programs at the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. The number of different insects we have seen just from slowly walking around the prairie or shaking out the insects from the plants onto a white sheet is amazing! Beetles, flies, ants, leafhoppers, bees, ambush bugs, butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies.... so many insect families are represented in the Garden! They all play a role in pollination and the food web, and they are a never ending source of my curiousity.
And on the topic of insects: Who isn't reminded of late summer with the trilling call of the cicada?

Another sign of August: yellow. In the prairie the Canada Goldenrod is in bloom and the Stiff Goldenrod is in bud. The Zigzag Goldenrod in the woods is just starting out. All throughout the prairie at the Garden is yellow (with some purple Showy Tick Trefoil thrown in for good measure). Those pesky yellow composits are in bloom. Cup plant, prairie dock, rosinweed, Jerusalem artichoke, compass flower, and many others... Every year I need a refresher course on what these plants are and how to identify them. One of these days I will be able to walk through the prairie and be able to confidently identify all the yellow flowers. (Insert laugh track here.)

There are other little natural world details that remind me it is August and that summer has a limited life span. The sun rises after 7am and sets after 8pm. We are losing 15 minutes of daylight each week this month! That little change in the angle of the sun and the shorter days just reminds me that fall is slowly creeping in.

This month is the annual Perseids meteor shower and they peak this weekend. However, this year we will have trouble seeing them because of the full moon. And it's not just any full moon. It's the fullest full moon in a decade (or something like that - hey I'm not astronomer!). Anyhow the moon will be very bright and will block out much of the meteor show. I have only seen the Perseids a few times in my life and this is due to a few factors. The biggest one is that I rarely stay up passed 10pm and they peak after midnight. The second factor is that I am usually by urban or suburban sprawl and therefore have less of a chance of seeing a good show. Maybe I will make the effort tonight to see them as high pressure is coming over the Twin Cities tonight and our skies will clear out for a lovely evening.

Yes, there are many signs that August is here and there are hints and allegations and whispers (some times shouts - "Get your back to school gear now!!!") that fall is just around the corner. Still the equinox is more than a month away (September 23rd this year!) and we have plenty of summer to enjoy. So while the dog days of summer are upon us, take the time to enjoy August. Let the trills and buzzing of the insects fill your ears. Enjoy the sunshine filled prairie and all of the many shades of yellow. Spend time outside in the warm nights (getting a few minutes longer each week!) to do some star gazing or shooting star wishing.

How will you enjoy August?