Meteorological summer’s last Monday this year

 For the record, female ruby-throated hummingbirds are still coming to the sugar water feeder. Yesterday, or maybe the day before, a male ruby-throat was seen at the feeder on the front window. I’m not sure if it’s lack of attention on our part or if males rarely visit the big feeder on the deck. In any event, I won’t be surprised if this morning’s batch of sugar water turns out to be the last for the year. We’ve not seen Baltimore orioles for something like a couple of weeks, so the hummers aren’t likely to finish off the feeder’s contents before they head south.

After last night’s rain, today’s weather is cool and dry, with a definite pre-autumnal feel to it. Warmer temperatures are in the forecast for the balance of the week. All the rain we’ve experienced over the past few weeks hasn’t brought us out of a moderate drought status, but it has triggered an explosion of mushrooms in our front yard woods. We’ve got some pictures, but haven’t yet tried to identify what they’re of, so you’ll have to wait until I can induce the Better Half to work with me on potential id’s. I can tell you that, compared to other year’s pictures, the fruiting(?) is at least a week or two earlier this year.

watch for grasshoppers or crickets in the grass

Photo by J. Harrington

There’s another tidbit I came across in the Minnesota Weatherguide Calendar that I want to share because it came as a surprise to me. Minnesota is home to several species of cricket. I’ve never considered that possibility before. To me a cricket is a cricket is a.... But no, there’s “snowy tree crickets, ... black field crickets and Carolina ground crickets.” The University of Minnesota Extension lists field crickets, camel crickets and house crickets. Minnesota Seasons’ list is much longer:

• Allard’s ground cricket (Allonemobius allardi)

• camel cricket (Ceuthophilus spp.)

• fall field cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus)

• snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni)

• spring field cricket (Gryllus veletis), and

• striped ground cricket (Allonemobius fasciatus)
  

We've now reached a time of year at which a number of “field crickets” endeavor to become “house crickets.” Our usual tactic is to place a clear plastic cup over the errant insect, then slide a piece of paper under the cup, and transport the critter back outside. The same approach works for spiders which often look for a warmer place to spend the winter. This is also a time of year when a cricket of a grasshopper fly can be very effective on your local trout stream, especially if it flows through grassy fields and the wind is blowing.

On the Grasshopper and Cricket

By John Keats

The Poetry of earth is never dead:    

  When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,    

  And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run    

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;    

That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead       

  In summer luxury,—he has never done    

  With his delights; for when tired out with fun    

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.    

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:    

  On a lone winter evening, when the frost      

    Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills    

The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,    

  And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,    

    The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.