So here is a little of my daybook history from this day in the third week of late summer:
2011: Cardinals called from about 5:15 this morning for about twenty minutes, hummingirds moved in on the feeders before sunrise, then the sparrow flock arrived, the rhythm of their leader about fifty-five chirps a minute, a little slower than I found in middle summer. No robins for a long time, disappeared a month ago as the rains stopped and heat in the 90s lasted day after day.
Two monarch butterflies, one spicebush, one tiger, one rare red-spotted purple swallowtail seen today. Our river birch and cherry show early turning. The black walnut tree by the church has lost half its leaves.
2012: Cardinals and robins heard at 5:15 this morning (the same time as last year). A large flock of starlings swooped back and forth across the sky as we drove east this afternoon. On the road to Cincinnati: old teasel and field thistles, banks of horseweed, many trees bare - stressed from drought and heat. At home, Tim's black walnut is almost bare. Peggy's virgin's bower is fully budded. Liz's Joe Pye weed and some of ours are going to seed.
2014: Along the river, full late summer: glades of bright wingstem, patches of tall bellflowers, scattered ironweed, huge heal-alls, boneset, touch-me-nots – yellow and orange.
My backyard history goes back over thirty years, but you don’t need to hear it all. That’s because the world is almost always the same on this date in this place, August 18 in late summer all along the 40th Parallel.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the fourth week summer. In the meantime, start your history. It will reassure you that all is well.
