by Dr. Sarah Treanor Bois, PhD
Director of Research & Conservation at the Linda Loring Nature Foundation
We’re halfway into August, and it starts to feel a touch like fall. There’s a slight crispness to the air in the early mornings, and the humidity of July has waned. The August Blues Fishing Tournament, which I love to participate in, has me thinking about August blues—I mean the kind of feeling that has less to do with bluefish and more to do with disappointment at the end of something. Of course, I’m reading way too much into the name of a fishing tournament, but there is an element of sadness that summer might soon be coming to a close.
It’s that “Sunday feeling” when you worry about Monday before it’s even arrived. People are planning for college drop-offs, making boat reservations, packing up for the season. We still have the air conditioner on, but we’re also shopping for back to school. My son, now in high school, has fall sports starting well before school begins: a harbinger of things to come after Labor Day. That August feeling is that we must hurry to get everything checked off our summer bucket list—pack it all in while we can. I try to remind myself to slow down, relax, and take it all in. Let’s live in the moment. Let’s stay in summer. It’s something we wait for all year, so why rush to give it up?
As a plant ecologist, I want to say, “it’s still summer, just look at the plants!” If I’m really honest with myself, the plants are changing, too. The pink petals of summer roses yield to yellow golden rods and small white asters of early fall. Many of our native shrubs are at the peak of fruit production: arrowwood, dewberries and blackberries, beach plum, and black cherries. The fruit buffet helps the birds that are getting ready to migrate. Many of the migrating songbirds gorge on the feast before heading out. I’ve even seen a few V-formations of geese, and I know the Osprey will soon start their migration south, but I’m not ready to pack away summer just yet.
Heading out for a walk with my dog this morning, the first thing I noticed was the sound. It’s the dog-day cicadas reminding me that we are still in the dogdays of summer. The water temperatures are warm, we can go for a swim, wear shorts, and the sun still sets after 7:30.
What else does August nature have to offer? August in nature, in the wilds of Nantucket, is noisy! Yes, the cicadas are calling. When you think of a hot, August day out on the moors of Nantucket, the calling cicadas are the soundtrack you’re hearing. Their song varies in pitch and intensity based on temperature cues. Cicadas like heat and do their most spirited singing during the hotter hours of a summer day, in a roughly 24-hour cycle. In some cases, the din is enough to throw off avian communication and disrupt their group hunting behavior. Keep that in mind when you hear their calls: audio defense!
By this time, the katydids can also be heard calling in the wooded areas. I can hear their low whine/hum from my back deck, which looks out on a stand of pitch pines. The sound is produced by rubbing two parts of their front wings together: one part is the file or comb, which has rough ridges, the other part is the plectrum used to produce the vibration. This is the males calling to the females—they mate during late summer.
Another noisy contribution in August are our baby birds, rather “teenage” birds. OK, they’re not actually teens, but they remind me so much of the notquite- adults. These are the newly fledged chicks that are learning to be adults. Many of them look almost like adults, but still act like big babies. They can and should fend for themselves, but they squawk and cry in hopes of being fed. In my yard this is mainly catbirds, eastern towhees, cardinals, and chickadees. At the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, one of the fledged osprey young keeps hanging around the nest, hopeful someone will bring him/her a fish. They chirp and whine like only an osprey can. They are able feed themselves, so there is no need to worry. They just don’t want to.
Walking some of our conservation trails around the island, a deliciously sweet smell wafts through the breeze this time in August. It’s not the heavy rose scent of July but the sweet, delicate fragrance of August: sweet pepperbush. Pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia) is a tall shrub that grows on the edges of wetlands. It likes having its “feet” wet, but not in water. The spike of white flowers bloom from base to tip with a pungent sweet smell. Loved by pollinators, the drone of bees accompanies the fragrant air. Pepperbush grows along the edges of many of our island trails. See if you can smell it before you see it.
On the drier side, sweet fern is also at its most pungent. This small shrub is actually not a fern at all, but it’s leaves resemble fronds. Walking along a sweet fern-lined path in the moors, the scent is in the air, especially when disturbed by my dog’s snout. As the name indicates, it’s a little spicey and sweet.
Another scented plant I love in August is our common bayberry. The leaves smell when crushed, but the nutlets (the bayberries themselves) are ripening now and carry the scent of bayberry with them. These tiny nutlets are an important food source for migratory birds like Tree Swallows and Yellow- Rumped Warblers. The gray/blue “berries” will hold on into the late fall and early winter, as long as they aren’t eaten and are, thus, an important resource as other late summer fruits are gone. The Bayberry’s waxy coating has also been used traditionally to make and scent candles. Remember that you have to look for the female plant for the berries; Bayberries are dioecious, meaning there are male plants and female plants, with only the females bearing fruit.
Continuing a walk into woodlands this weekend, I noticed more than a little red in the color palette. The summer drought continues on-island and, now that it’s August, some species have decided to go dormant early. Rather than waiting for fall for the color show, some deciduous species like Virginia creeper, poison ivy, and low bush blueberry have begun to turn red now, likely dropping leaves in early fall. It’s a way for a woody plant to deal with drought stress. It can be an “eye spy” along a trail as you look for crimson leaves.
Hopefully we’ll get some rain soon to extend our season. It’s a great time to go for a walk and see nature in August. Hold on to it as long as you can! I, for one, am going to try and enjoy August and savor rather than mourn these waning days of summer.
