Critters and weather
02/09/14 05:14
There is lots of folklore about different animals and their ability to predict the weather. If you watch animals enough you are bound to see them react to the weather. It makes sense. They live outdoors. And they are probably at least as sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity as we. There’s really no big surprise there. I think that we would be more sensitive to changes in the weather if we spent more time outdoors. I read a lot of books about wilderness expeditions and recently finished the two volumes of P.G. Downes’ Journals of his travels in northern Canada. The journals are filled with weather observations. He has estimated temperatures, wind speed and direction and reports rain showers and other weather phenomena throughout the journals.
Yesterday’s forecast called for a chance of thunder showers and the weather was true to the forecast. In the afternoon we could hear the boom of distant thunder and we could see the dark clouds approaching. Before long the lightning strikes weren’t distant at all. The crack of the thunder was enough to bring us to the windows to take a look and we were treated to a light show that included several strikes that were in our neighborhood. More amazing and amusing than the lightning, however, was the reaction of the fawns who spend their time in our yard and those of the neighbors. They got positively wild when the lighting began to strike close to home. They ran across the back yard to the tall grass at the neighbors. Then another strike occurred and they ran across our back yard, took the turn to the front of our house and across the street into the neighbor’s trees. Another strike and you could see the white tails rising and the little deer boding away again. We didn’t see the adult deer during all that time. It was just the fawns born this year that spent the first part of the storm running from place to place. The adults seemed to stay hunkered down in the tall grass next to trees for shelter.
Then the rain came. And it really rained. I think we got about a half inch in 15 - 20 minutes. Sheets of water were running down the street. A few small hailstones, not even big enough to be pea-sized, made little drifts alongside the driveway. The gravel from the neighbor’s driveway made a little pile in the street. It was raining too hard to even watch from the shelter of our covered porch. The good news is that I had cleaned all of the pine needles (again) out of our rain gutters in the morning. The rain flushed everything else out the gutters so they are working perfectly. The fawns stopped running from place to place. They hunkered down in the grass and got wet just like everything else. The shower didn’t last long.
As for predicting the weather, however, I wouldn’t place too much stock in the fawns. They were simply reacting to the weather and their reactions weren’t very sensible.
The critters I was wondering about in terms of prediction are the ducks. The ducks are getting really fat. I know that they don’t stick around for winter, so fat ducks probably don’t predict the severity of winter, but they put on the fat for fuel for the long trip of migration and fat ducks might be predicting the closeness of the migration. Perhaps they are ready to go. The first of September is early for the ducks to leave, however. I’m thinking that fat ducks doesn’t really predict anything. It probably just means that they’ve had a good summer with lots to eat.
The great blue heron chicks are ready to fly as well. They are nearly as big as the adults, now. The one thing that distinguishes this year’s chicks is that, like the deer fawns, they are far less patient than the adults. An adult can sit and fish for hours and hardly make a move unless a fish comes into range. The chicks will sit and look just like the adults and then ten or fifteen minutes be off to a new fishing hole. I watched on heron yesterday move its spot four times in a matter of minutes. I have wondered how soon in their lives the chicks develop that deep squawk that characterizes the adult birds, but I didn’t hear anything from the heron yesterday, except the flap, flap, flap of the wings.
I keep watching the birds and animals in our yard, but I don’t have any wisdom about how soon winter will arrive or how severe it will be once it comes. Based on the past year, I guess I’ll predict that it will bring some surprises. Everyone around here is saying that it is an unusual year for weather. The hills are surprisingly green. We’ve had regular rain all summer long and I think it may be the first September since we’ve lived in the hills where I have to mow my lawn. Usually the rate of growth slows in August and in dry years my back yard goes dormant by this time of the year. But when I mowed on Saturday, the grass in the back was as long as the grass in the front.
The moisture, of course, is only one of the surprises of the year. For now, the forecast calls for summer-like weather for the next week or so, with highs in the 80’s and perhaps even up to 90 by mid week. It has got to be a challenge for the kids in school and their teachers. We don’t have much air conditioning in school buildings around here and the kids have to be aware of how nice it is outdoors. With rain every day during the Labor Day weekend they’re bound to feel a little bit cheated to have to stay in side all day long for the next few sunny and summer-like days.
But then I could have protected that. Anyone who watches children knows that the transition into the new school year is a bit of a challenge. And the first few weeks of school always seem to sport great weather outdoors.
Yesterday’s forecast called for a chance of thunder showers and the weather was true to the forecast. In the afternoon we could hear the boom of distant thunder and we could see the dark clouds approaching. Before long the lightning strikes weren’t distant at all. The crack of the thunder was enough to bring us to the windows to take a look and we were treated to a light show that included several strikes that were in our neighborhood. More amazing and amusing than the lightning, however, was the reaction of the fawns who spend their time in our yard and those of the neighbors. They got positively wild when the lighting began to strike close to home. They ran across the back yard to the tall grass at the neighbors. Then another strike occurred and they ran across our back yard, took the turn to the front of our house and across the street into the neighbor’s trees. Another strike and you could see the white tails rising and the little deer boding away again. We didn’t see the adult deer during all that time. It was just the fawns born this year that spent the first part of the storm running from place to place. The adults seemed to stay hunkered down in the tall grass next to trees for shelter.
Then the rain came. And it really rained. I think we got about a half inch in 15 - 20 minutes. Sheets of water were running down the street. A few small hailstones, not even big enough to be pea-sized, made little drifts alongside the driveway. The gravel from the neighbor’s driveway made a little pile in the street. It was raining too hard to even watch from the shelter of our covered porch. The good news is that I had cleaned all of the pine needles (again) out of our rain gutters in the morning. The rain flushed everything else out the gutters so they are working perfectly. The fawns stopped running from place to place. They hunkered down in the grass and got wet just like everything else. The shower didn’t last long.
As for predicting the weather, however, I wouldn’t place too much stock in the fawns. They were simply reacting to the weather and their reactions weren’t very sensible.
The critters I was wondering about in terms of prediction are the ducks. The ducks are getting really fat. I know that they don’t stick around for winter, so fat ducks probably don’t predict the severity of winter, but they put on the fat for fuel for the long trip of migration and fat ducks might be predicting the closeness of the migration. Perhaps they are ready to go. The first of September is early for the ducks to leave, however. I’m thinking that fat ducks doesn’t really predict anything. It probably just means that they’ve had a good summer with lots to eat.
The great blue heron chicks are ready to fly as well. They are nearly as big as the adults, now. The one thing that distinguishes this year’s chicks is that, like the deer fawns, they are far less patient than the adults. An adult can sit and fish for hours and hardly make a move unless a fish comes into range. The chicks will sit and look just like the adults and then ten or fifteen minutes be off to a new fishing hole. I watched on heron yesterday move its spot four times in a matter of minutes. I have wondered how soon in their lives the chicks develop that deep squawk that characterizes the adult birds, but I didn’t hear anything from the heron yesterday, except the flap, flap, flap of the wings.
I keep watching the birds and animals in our yard, but I don’t have any wisdom about how soon winter will arrive or how severe it will be once it comes. Based on the past year, I guess I’ll predict that it will bring some surprises. Everyone around here is saying that it is an unusual year for weather. The hills are surprisingly green. We’ve had regular rain all summer long and I think it may be the first September since we’ve lived in the hills where I have to mow my lawn. Usually the rate of growth slows in August and in dry years my back yard goes dormant by this time of the year. But when I mowed on Saturday, the grass in the back was as long as the grass in the front.
The moisture, of course, is only one of the surprises of the year. For now, the forecast calls for summer-like weather for the next week or so, with highs in the 80’s and perhaps even up to 90 by mid week. It has got to be a challenge for the kids in school and their teachers. We don’t have much air conditioning in school buildings around here and the kids have to be aware of how nice it is outdoors. With rain every day during the Labor Day weekend they’re bound to feel a little bit cheated to have to stay in side all day long for the next few sunny and summer-like days.
But then I could have protected that. Anyone who watches children knows that the transition into the new school year is a bit of a challenge. And the first few weeks of school always seem to sport great weather outdoors.