Young Folks' Nature Field Book :: September September First

September September First

In various localities the Oswego tea is known as "bee balm," "fragrant balm," "Indian plume," and "mountain mint." "The bee balm especially haunts those cool brooks, and its rounded flower-clusters touch with warmth the shadows of the deep woods of midsummer. The Indians named the flower, o-gee-chee, 'flaming flower,' and are said to have made a tea-like decoction from the blossoms." (Dana.)

September Second

Small mammals are abundant in the Adirondacks. Chipmunks and red squirrels are very tame, and if one sits still in the woods they will approach within a few feet. By watching at the base of logs and stumps, you can often see a red-backed mouse or a long-tailed shrew. The latter is the smallest of American mammals, its body being scarcely two inches in length.

September Third

Mr. Scudder says that katydids have a day and a night song. He has watched one, and when a cloud obscured the sky, it, and all of those within his hearing, stopped singing and began their night song, but as soon as the sun came out, they again changed to their original song.

Notes

September Fourth

What a fine time the robins, cedar-birds, catbirds, and flickers are having in the choke-cherry bushes these days! Twenty or thirty of them may fly from a bush of ripened fruit as you approach. The streaked and speckled breasted young robins and cedar-birds are loath to leave their feast.

September Fifth

It is hard to believe that the yellow butterflies with the black tips and spots on their wings, so common about moist spots in the road, were once cabbage worms. Mr. Packard says that this species was introduced from Europe to Quebec about 1857. It rapidly spread into New England and has reached as far south as Washington, D. C. About Quebec it annually destroys $250,000 worth of cabbages.

September Sixth

The bottle, closed, or blind gentian loves the damp fields and somewhat open road-sides. It resembles a cluster of bright blue buds about to open, but they never do. Neltje Blanchan says that bumblebees have hard work to rob it of its nectar and pollen. Climbing clumsily over the corolla, it finds the space between the lips and forces its head and trunk through the opening. Presently it backs out, and, with its feet and velvety body covered with pollen, flies away to fertilize some other gentian.

Notes

September Seventh

Muskrats, like children, make "collections." A muskrat's "playhouse" is usually placed on a partly submerged stump, log, boulder, or the float of a boat-house. In some such place is piled all sorts of rubbish,—sticks, stones, bones, iron, glass, clam shells, and what not. Near by one may find a thick mat of aquatic grass, used by the owner as a resting-place. When camped in the vicinity of a playhouse, you will hear the clink of touching stones at night, and the splash of water.

September Eighth

Damp, shaded flats along streams or spring-holes, are where the jewel-weed, or touch-me-not, clusters. The orange-colored blossoms have gone to seed and hang in tiny pods upon the stems. Touch one, and if it is ripe, it will burst with a suddenness that startles you.

September Ninth

You must be unfamiliar with the country if you have never felt the sting of the nettle. The rib of the nettle leaf is armed with tiny, hollow spines, each of which is connected with a microscopic sack or bulb filled with poison, called formic acid. When the skin is pierced by the spines, the bulb is pressed, and the poison injected into the wound. Every boy of outdoor life knows that mud will relieve the irritation.

Notes

September Tenth

The true locusts are the field insects commonly called "grasshoppers." They belong to a class of insects whose metamorphosis is not complete,—that is, they do not go through all of the several stages of transformation. The young, on emerging from the ground where the eggs were laid the summer previous, look like abnormal wingless grasshoppers. Grasshoppers live but a single season.

September Eleventh

The little green heron will steal cautiously along the water's edge, with head drawn in, and beak pointed forward. Then he stops, and with a sudden lunge catches a minnow or a polliwog in his bill, and swallows it head foremost. When flushed, he laboriously wings his way across the stream and, alighting in the shallow water or in a tree, flirts his tail, stretches his long neck, and stands motionless a few minutes before starting on another fishing trip.

September Twelfth

At this season the banks of the rivers and streams shine with the golden blossoms of the wild sunflower, artichoke, Canadian potato, or earth apple. In late summer and early spring, freshets wash away the earth, leaving the edible, tuberous roots exposed for the muskrats, woodchucks, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits to feed upon.

Notes

September Thirteenth

Patiently Madam Spider sits and holds the cords of her telegraph system, waiting for some unfortunate to announce to her its capture. When she receives this message, out she rushes, and while the victim struggles she holds him with her legs, while other legs are busy binding him with cords.

September Fourteenth

The American goldfinch is very much in evidence these days. He sways back and forth on the heads of the Canadian thistles, and clings to the ripened sunflower heads, the fruit of which he is very fond. When disturbed he flies away in graceful undulations, calling back to you, "Just-see-me-go; just-see-me-go; just-see-me-go."

September Fifteenth

When overburdened with honey and bee-bread, large numbers of honey bees are drowned while attempting to cross wide stretches of water. Put your hand in the water and let one crawl into the palm. It will not sting so long as you do not squeeze or touch it. Note the two dots of golden pollen adhering to the cups on the hind feet. Gradually the bee regains strength and begins to dry itself. First fluttering its wings, then combing its fuzzy head and trunk with its legs, finally it is off in the direction of its hive.

Notes

September Sixteenth

Clinging to the old stump fences, and covering the low bushes by the roadside, the wild clematis, or traveller's joy, smiles at the wayfarer and defies the efforts of the farmer to exterminate it. As the blossom goes to seed, a charming, foamlike effect is produced by the appearance of the many stamens and pistils.

September Seventeenth

This week the rose-breasted grosbeak, kingbird, Baltimore oriole, yellow warbler, ruby-throated hummingbird and yellow-breasted chat will probably leave for the South. They all pass beyond the United States to winter, and most of them go to Mexico, Central and South America. Good luck to them on their long journey, and may they all live to return to us again next summer.

September Eighteenth

The dense forests strewn with moss-covered logs, stumps, and boulders, and the rocky, fern-clad borders of woodland rivulets, are the home of the winter wren. Quite like a mouse in actions, he works his way over and under the fallen trees; in and out of the rocky crevices, until you quite despair of guessing where he will next appear.

YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT.

Notes

September Nineteenth

The next time you go into the country, catch two or three locusts (grasshoppers), and examine their bodies for locust mites. They are tiny red mites usually clustered at the base of the grasshopper's wings, and are easily found if you raise the wings slightly and look under them. Often they are found on house flies.

September Twentieth

Nature employs many ingenious devices for distributing the seed of her plants. The downy seeds of the Canadian thistle, dandelion, prickly lettuce, dogbane, and milkweed are cast over the land by the winds. The common tare, the jewel-weed, and the wood sorrel have devices for throwing their seeds. Seeds of many species of plants are contained in burrs or "stickers" that adhere to the coats of animals and are carried miles before they are finally planted.

September Twenty-first

A belted kingfisher, when suddenly seized with a fit of playfulness, will skim over the water and plunge beneath the surface, sending the spray in all directions. Emerging, he continues his flight, repeating the performance every fifty feet or more, at the same time "rattling" loudly as though in great ecstasy.

Notes

September Twenty-second

The thick, chunky purple heads of the Canadian thistle always attract the bumblebees, and you find them as eager for its nectar as they were for the Joe-Pie weed a month or so ago. It is wonderful how much abuse a bumblebee will stand before he loses his temper. He is much more tractable than his cousin, the honey bee, or any of the wasps.

September Twenty-third

Some animals lay by a supply of fat for winter, which they absorb while resting in comparative quiet in their burrows. Others are endowed with a hoarding instinct, so they gather and store nuts, grain, seeds, and fruit to last them until spring, while the remainder are forced to live upon the food that the season affords them,—a life of privation, in many instances.

September Twenty-fourth

The monarch butterfly is one of the common butterflies seen in early fall. It is something of a wanderer, going North in the spring and migrating South in the fall. Have you ever watched them floating through the air, high above your head and tried to estimate how high they were?

Notes

September Twenty-fifth

Fishermen often find piles of clam shells heaped under the exposed roots of trees or stumps, at or near the water's edge. This is the work of muskrats. After carrying the clams from the bed of the stream, the rats take them to the bank and leave them for the sun to open. Then they eat the clams, after which the shells are disposed of in little heaps.

September Twenty-sixth

Next to the red-shouldered hawk, the red-tailed hawk is the most common of the large hawks in Eastern North America. Although the farmers shoot it on sight, and the barn-yard fowls hurry to shelter at its cries, it is one of the farmer's best friends, because of the great number of grasshoppers and mice it captures. Its cry is a loud, high-pitched, "long-drawn out squealing whistle which to my ear suggests the sound of escaping steam." (Chapman.)

September Twenty-seventh

You hear the mitchella-vine spoken of as "partridge berry," "twin-berry," and "squaw-berry." It is a small-leaved vine, very common in woods and shaded thickets. Winter does not harm its fruit, so it is a welcome treat to many birds and mammals in early spring. The buds appear in pairs, which form a double fruit with two eyes, or navels, thus giving it the name of "twin-berry."

Notes

September Twenty-eighth

The water skate, or water strider, resembles somewhat a "granddaddy longlegs." It runs about over the surface of the water in search of microscopic insects, casting grotesque shadows on the bottom. It does not dive like the water boatman, but if it chooses it can take wing, and is often seen to spring into the air and grasp its prey.

September Twenty-ninth

Our common sunfish builds a nest of stones and gravel on the bottom of a stream. "The male watches the nest and drives away all intruders. The species is usually hardy in captivity, but is subject to fungus attacks, which yield readily to a treatment with brackish water." (Bean.)

September Thirtieth

On moonlight nights skunks come out into the fields to feed upon beetles and grasshoppers. They are keen scented, and you will sometimes see where their claws have assisted in securing an insect that their nose has detected in the ground. They will often approach a man carrying a lantern, and after sniffing at it a few times will walk away and resume their hunt.

SKUNK HUNTING GRASSHOPPERS.

Notes

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