(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Last days of summer here, I hope. Street Prophets Coffee Hour. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-07
Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour, the place where politics meets up with religion, science, art, nature, and life. Come in, have a cuppa and a cookie (or three!) and join us.
Tuesday we had what I hope is the last truly hot day of the summer. We reached 100°F here in northeast Kansas. From here, the days look to be in the 80s, some high and some low, and next week will be a mix of 80s and 70s. (It’s only fair to note that those temperatures, according to my friends in Scotland, are still very hot summer days.) The world around me is getting ready for the coming winter.
Muskrats are taking grasses to their dens for bedding but also for winter food. They’ll also grab some low-hanging twigs and branches from willow trees and stick them into the mud outside their under-water doorways. Often those sticks will grow roots and become willow trees because willows love having their toes in water.
Turtles (these are sliders) take the sun as much as they can, because they’re cold blooded and this is their only way to get warm, but it will be only another month before they burrow into the mud at the bottom of the pond, where they will wait out the cold weather.
Spider webs are huge in the fall, often going from a tree limb to something growing lower on the ground. I have to take a stick with me to clear the path in front of me, or I’ll have a face full of sticky webbing.
Looks like there will be more grasshoppers next year.
Native grasses make some spectacular seed heads.
There should be another generation of hairstreak butterflies next year, too.
The ornate box turtles burrow into soil wherever it’s soft enough.
The dreaded European starling takes on its winter colors, showing where it got its name. I’m all for gathering up every single one of these and sending them back to Europe.
White-tailed deer grow a heavy winter coat. This is the time of year when does are pregnant, planned so the fawns come in the spring and have the entire summer to grow before facing a winter, themselves.
I don’t have the grey squirrels so prevalent in town. I have the smaller reddish fox squirrels. They’re more easily tolerated because their numbers are kept down by predators—hawks, owls, and coyotes. They’ll be active all winter. They bury the acorns (this one is from a bur oak and it’s huge) and then forget where they are, so I have little bur oak trees sprouting every spring.
This is the only species of hummingbird I get here in Kansas, the ruby throat. They’re already starting to migrate but I have the ones from further north still passing through. If you have hummingbird feeders out, keep filling them until you no longer see birds for two weeks. They need an enormous amount of energy to keep moving, to make the long trip across the Gulf of Mexico to their winter grounds.
What’s going on where you are? And while you’re here, check out this week’s Community Needs List. There may be someone you can help through a rough patch.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/7/2192011/-Last-days-of-summer-here-I-hope-Street-Prophets-Coffee-Hour
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
