Nature Connection: Settling In For Summer

Mornings have gotten a little quieter as the bird chorus begins to wrap up. If you’re up before dawn, you may still hear a few robins, cardinals and song sparrows as well as a catbird or two. Most, however, have settled down with a mate and are either tending a nest or newly hatched nestlings. Any early morning singing now usually is reminding others of territories, though some are still actively seeking a mate.

Many people used to busy bird feeders openly question what has happened to all their usual visitors. It seems worrisome, perhaps, but be assured they are just otherwise engaged. Taking care of a mate sitting on eggs and then feeding voracious and quickly growing nestlings means catching and delivering caterpillars and other insects. This means they won’t be back at your feeder for a bit, but don’t worry, it’s temporary.

Even the oriole feeders are quiet, but keep watch. It won’t be long before the young orioles will fledge and then they will join their parents at your orange feeders. This is true of hummingbirds as well. Some will continue to come to feeders, but most will be busy taking care of young for a while.

If you have an osprey nest you enjoy watching, it is almost time to look for little heads peeking up. Ospreys, like many birds of prey, hatch one chick at a time over a period of days. This means the first chick may grow faster and stronger and the last one hatched may be too weak to compete with its siblings for food. This may seem like a cruel way to raise young for us humans, but it often assures that at least one chick will survive and thrive. In a good summer, all the chicks will survive and thrive.

Young foxes and coyotes are venturing out of their dens now and may be seen frolicking with their siblings as their parents hunt to keep them fed. All that tussling and mock fighting helps them develop their skills. You will see them jumping and running and digging and sniffing, all tools they will need when they have to hunt on their own. Most will remain in their family groups over the next few months. Young foxes will head out on their own in the fall, but most young coyotes stay with their family group through the winter. Some will spend next summer in their pack helping to raise the new babies before heading off on their own.

Turkeys have hatched their babies, called poults, and you may see a mom and an auntie shepherding them around. Some of these groups may be more than one family, but some will just be one family with two females looking after them. I often get asked why coyotes don’t thin out the turkey population more than they do and I invite you to try and mess with these prickly moms and aunties. After you do that, you will understand why the coyotes look elsewhere as well. Not that they won’t take an opportunity to grab an unguarded poult when they can, but those opportunities are fairly rare.

Many of our trees and shrubs are done flowering, though not all. Now they are concentrating their energy on developing fruits and nuts. Berry-bearing shrubs such as wild blueberries will offer ripe fruit in a few weeks while others, such as the beach plums, will take most of the summer to give up mature fruit. Nut-bearing trees take most of the summer as well, but by early fall acorns and nuts will be abundant.

In the meantime, you may be noticing that the insect population is in full gear. This does not mean you should grab a bottle of poison, but you may want to consider covering your fruit-bearing bushes to protect them from both insects and fruit-eating birds and animals. There are many ways to discourage insects in our gardens, but in some cases the insects are doing the work we want, not the work we think they’re doing. A healthy organic garden will invite insects that eat annoying insects but also birds that eat the annoying little buggers. I have several cardinals that are in my vegetable gardens all the time, picking off bugs to feed themselves and their offspring. Of course, some birds may also help themselves to your produce, but often I feel it is a fair tradeoff.

Caterpillars can drive homeowners crazy, but here’s the thing. Caterpillars are one of the most utilized foods for nesting birds. A family of chickadees or titmice can eat hundreds of caterpillars each day. It is true caterpillars can leave a lot of holes in leaves, but if you look carefully, you’ll see that they don’t eat all the leaves, just some. The exception is when we have an infestation of gypsy moths or winter moths, but even they are cyclical and eaten by a large number of birds. Encourage more birds to have fewer infestations.

These days in June are quieter than those in May, but in just a few days or weeks a whole new ruckus will begin. This will be when all the birds fledge, the mosquitoes appear, the greenhead flies emerge, and the fish and whales fill our bays and ocean. This will coincide with local schools getting out for summer, which means the tourists will arrive as well.

Fun times are coming, but for now? Enjoy the peace and quiet. Nurture your gardens, get to know your wild neighbors, including the caterpillars, and settle in for summer. She will soon be in full regalia, with all that entails.