Last Updated: Saturday, August 23, 2008 8:46 PM CDT
Wisconsin Woodsmoke: Roadsides blooming with wild color
By Ced Vig
“Be glad of life! Because it gives you the chance to love and work, to play and to look up at the stars.” Henry Van Dyke
August is my favorite month in the Northwoods. The fragrance of the flowers, the greenery of late summer, the perfume of wild raspberries, and the tang of pine and balsam all blend together to form a fresh, cool, clean perfume, resulting in our saying many times, “It sure smells good here in the North Country. The best ever!”
Snake myths
Snakes are not slimy. They do not hypnotize their prey and don’t sting with their tongues. When danger threatens their young, they do not swallow them. The mate of a snake does not return to avenge its death. In fact, snakes do not mate permanently.
Snapping Turtles
The snapping turtle, unlike any other reptile, has a special gill-like organ that enables it to breathe under water as long as it chooses. Thus, it can (and does) lie in wait for passing prey on a pond bottom almost indefinitely. The snapper must lie still, however. Once it moves the metabolism increases and it must surface for air.
Flowers of August
The goldenrods have started to blossom along the roadsides. There are 21 species in Wisconsin; all are natives. During the days of the Boston Tea Party, when English tea was being boycotted, tea was made from dried goldenrod roots. This substitute was so good that it was exported to China for tea drinkers there.
Goldenrod plants reproduce by sending up new plants from roots (clones), creating large patches of plants which exclude other plants from the site. Goldenrod stems are frequently visited by a gall fly or wasp who lays its eggs in the stem. When the eggs hatch, it causes the stem to produce a roundish swelling in which the larvae reside. During early winter, fishermen gather and open these galls, using the larvae for fish bait.
The jewelweeds are in blossom. These lovely orange blossoms hang down like lovely orange earrings. When the seed pods mature and then are touched, they will literally explode and scatter their seeds in all directions. That’s why they are frequently known as “touch-me-nots.” Jewelweeds belong to the Impatiens family.
The Indian pipe are blossoming in early August. You’ll find them under the hemlock trees. Since they lack green chlorophyll, they do not need bright light to manufacture food. Nutrients for them are provided by a mass of fungi in their root network. The unique plant has a white stem, white leaves and white flowers. Upon maturity, their flowers point upward and turn black, but the dried stem and seed pod can still be found the following year.
Along the roadsides, the pinkish-purple flowers of the fireweed can be seen, but the beautiful rosy-red flowers growing in large patches in the wetlands and among cattails and water trails are purple loosestrife. They’re newcomers to northern Wisconsin and threaten to eliminate many of the cattails and native plants in the wetlands. It behooves local governmental agencies and environmentalists to aid in the destruction of purple loosestrife. It spreads like wildfire.
Feeding young hummers
The female hummer feeds the nestlings with the insects that she has digested in her crop. It’s much like a sword-swallowing act when the female sticks her long beak down into the nestlings’ gullets and regurgitates food into it.
Much of the sugar water provides the hummers with food energy and water. Much of a female hummer’s day is spent visiting flowers where she finds insects, spiders and some nectar. Perhaps insects have a higher priority than does nectar.
Don’t feed them
The large population of black bear and white-tailed deer is causing a nuisance problem in the Northwoods. Both animals frequent the backyards. As far as bears are concerned, “Under no circumstances should anyone knowingly feed a bear. Bears will lose their instinctive fear of humans quite easily and can become a nuisance as a result,” Mike Gappa, a DNR biologist, said, “Almost all conflicts between bears and humans occur as a result of the animal’s search for food.”
Monarchs are here
The orange and black monarch butterflies have arrived. You’ll see them flying over the milkweed plants where the females lay their eggs under the leaves. It takes five weeks for an egg to reach the adult stage.
A butterfly chuckle
While feeding on a milkweed plant, two monarch caterpillars looked up and saw a gorgeous orange and black butterfly go gliding by. “What’s that?” asked one of the caterpillars. “I don’t know,” said the other, “but you’ll never get me up in one of those contraptions!”
Helper Crows
When you see crows in the fields, they’re feeding on grasshoppers. When grasshoppers are abundant, a crow’s crop may contain as many as 100. This summer’s young crows may become helpers for their parents and stay as long as seven years, helping raise young birds and defending the family’s nesting site.
This and that
Although scattered frosts are not uncommon during August, it is generally our warmest month with little wind.
It’s a dewy time of the summer when spider webs glisten like diamonds in the early morning sunshine. There are no national holidays during August, but Americans travel more during this month than any other.
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Comments
Lynn wrote on Aug 31, 2008 9:25 PM: