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Poor Will's Almanack: July 16 - 23, 2024

A cricket
Pixabay

Seed pods have formed on the locust trees. And some green-hulled. walnuts are already on the ground. This year's ducklings and goslings

are nearly full grown. The first young deer are losing their spots.In the warmest summers earliest annual cicadas start to chant. There are no limits. to all of this , and the more you see,the deeper you enter Deep Sumer and you see lizard’s tail in flower along the rivers and lakes, and tassels grow long on the corn, and shy enchanter’s nightshade blooms in the woods, then the first soybeans are blossoming, too, and black-eyed susans bloom along the freeways, and turtles are hatching.

And it is Deep Summer when you see blackberries setting fruit, and elderberry bushes lose their white coat of flowers.

When fireflies dwindle, and the birds sing more softly, and sometimes never sing at all, and the land isgetting ready for the great time of insect song, the harsh, and bold song, the deepest song of Deep Summer, of full cicada and the growl of the katydids in the woods.

This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with more notes on the seasons. In meantime, listen to the birds grow quieter in the morning and then as the day progresses, listen for the loud sounds of the cicadas. Then in the evening, the crickets. And right at the end, the growl of the katydids.

Bill Felker has been writing nature columns and almanacs for regional and national publications since 1984. His Poor Will’s Almanack has appeared as an annual publication since 2003. His organization of weather patterns and phenology (what happens when in nature) offers a unique structure for understanding the repeating rhythms of the year.