Chuck Tague

    Summer begins with the Summer Solstice at 1:45 a.m. EDT on June 21.  It’s time to plan a Solstice celebration.

    The earliest sunrises of the year occurs from June 9 through June 19 when the sun rises in Pittsburgh at 5:49 a.m. EDT.  On June 20 sunrise occurs one minute later, at 5:50 a.m., a trend that will not be reversed until mid January 2010. Because the Earth's orbit is elliptical rather than circular the longest day, the earliest sunrise, and latest sunset do not coincide.  The longest days occur around the Summer Solstice (in Pittsburgh, fifteen hours and four minutes from June 18 through June 23).  The latest sunset, 8:54 p.m., happens from June 21 through July 3 this year.

    Now is the time to learn bird songs!  Soon the morning chorus will peak and then each morning singers will drop out as they turn their attention to raising young.  Get out early and listen!

    Songbirds are nesting.  Watch for them carrying food, an indication that they are feeding young.  I photographed a Cedar Waxwing gathering nest material at Frick Park on June 7.  Cedar Waxwings are one of the last songbirds to build a nest each spring.  They wait for the summer fruit to ripen.  Unlike other songbirds that depend on insects, waxwings feed berries to their nestlings.

    Young songbirds will soon be fledging everywhere.  Be aware that Brown-headed Cowbird females are also lurking in the brush, looking for bird nests with eggs.  These brood parasites lay as many as 40 eggs a season in the nests of other songbirds.

    In the grasslands west of Bavington, PA in Washington, County, the breeding sparrows are very active.  On a morning walk you can hear, and with luck see, Grasshopper, Henslow’s, Field, Song and Vesper Sparrows.  Click here to see the Nature Observer’s gallery of sparrow photos.  (From the Parkway or Route 60, go west on US 22 to the Bavington Exit.  At the end of the ramp turn right then left (west) onto Old Steubenville Pike.  At Haul Road, turn left into the parking area.  Hike up the dirt road on the left side of the lot.  Listen for the Henslow’s “fish-lips” song at the first crest.)

Henlow’s Sparrow

    Eastern Screech Owl fledglings, nothing but balls of fluff with eyes and still flightless, are venturing out of the nest holes now.

    Wood Ducks are also cavity nesters that breed near swamps, streams and rivers.  Many ducklings have already left the nest.  The nest is often near water but may be located a mile or more from the nearest stream.  Ducklings leave the nest soon after they hatch and Wood Ducks are no exception.  Their exit, however, involves a drop from a cavity in a tree to the water or ground below.  This may be as much as 60 feet.  The lightness of their bodies and their soft downy plumage softens the fall.  A Wood Duck hen lays up to 15 eggs.  Watch for lines of these brown and yellow fluff balls swimming behind mom through wooded streams and ponds.  The broods are large at first but less than half of all Wood Duck chicks survive the first month.

    Hen Turkeys will soon be leading lines of poults.

   

Wool-sower Gall on White Oak

    Look for insect galls forming on fresh leaves.

Wool-sower Galls are caused by a gall wasp species, “Callirhytis seminator”.  This soft spotted growth only appears on White Oak.  Oak Apple Galls occur on many species of oak. 

    Witch Hazel Cone Galls are forming on the upper surface of Witch Hazel leaves.  Look for a cone shaped “witch’s hat”.  These protect the eggs and larva of Witch Hazel leaf-gall aphids, which will migrate to birch trees when they leave the gall.

    How can you tell if  June Bugs are around?  Look on oak leaves for scattergun patterns of round holes.

    Wet cool weather is perfect for mosquitoes and biting Black Flies.  Ticks are plentiful in grassy fields.  Take precautions.

    Listen for the first insect sounds, the Spring Crickets.  Watch for the flash of the first fireflies.

   

Peck’s Skipper on Red Clover

    By the solstice meadow wildflowers will be out in force.  When the first Common Milkweed blooms look for Great Fritillaries and other meadow-feeding butterflies.  Here’s a list of some June butterflies in western Pennsylvania

Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Black morph), Papilio glaucus

Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes

Spicebush Swallowtail, Papilio troilus

    Pieridae

Orange Sulphur, Colias Eurytheme

Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice

Cabbage White, Pieris rapae

    Lycaeninae

Harvester, Feniseca tarquinius

Bronze Copper, Lycaena hyllus

American Copper, Lycaena phlaeas

Banded Hairstreak, Satyrium Calanus

Coral Hairstreak, Satyrium titus

    Polyommatinae

Summer Azure, Celestrina neglecta

Cherry Gall Azure, Celestrina serotina

Eastern Tailed Blue, Everes comyntas

    Nymphalidae

Hackberry Emperor, Asterocampa celtis

Meadow Fritillary, Bolloria bellona

Harris's Checkerspot, Chlosyne harrisii

Silvery Checkerspot, Chlosyne nycteis

Common Ringlet, Coenonympha tullia

Monarch, Danaus plexippus

Northern Pearlyeye, Enodia anthedon

Variegated Fritillary, Euptoieta claudia

Red-spotted Purple, Limenitis arthemis

Red-spotted Purple (intermediate form), Limenitis arthemis

Red-spotted Purple (typical), Limenitis arthemis

White Admiral, Limenitis arthemis arthemis

Viceroy, Limentis archippus

Little Wood Satyr, Megisto cymela

Mourning Cloak, Nymphalis antiopa

Pearl Crescent, Phycoides tharos

Northern Crescent, Phycoides selenis

Eastern Comma, Polygonia comma

Question Mark, Polygonia interrogationis

Gray Comma, Polygonia progne

Aphrodite, Speyeria aphrodite

Atlantis Fritillary, Speyeria atlanits

Great Spangled Fritillary, Speyeria cybele

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta

American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis

    Hesperiidae

Pepper-and-Salt Skipper, Amblyscirtes hegan

Delaware Skipper, Anatrytone logan

Least Skipper, Ancyloxpha numitor

Arctic Skipper, Carterocephalus palaemon

Silver-spotted Skipper, Epargyreus clarus

Sleepy Duskywing, Erynnis brizo

Dreamy Duskywing, Erynnis icelus

Dun Skipper, Euphyes vestris

Indian Skipper, Hesperia sassacus

Wild Indigo Duskywing, Erynnis baptisiae

Zabulon Skipper, Poanes zabulon

Hobomok Skipper, Poanes hobomok

Long Dash, Polites mystic

Peck's Skipper, Polites peckius

Little Glassywing, Pompeius verna

Northern Cloudywing , Thorybes pylades

European Skipper, Thymalicus lineola

Northern Broken Dash, Wallengrenia egremet

    Take an evening walk and enjoy the flight of the moths.  Keep an eye out for the huge white and green Luna Moth.  Polyphemus Moths, bat-sized critters with an owl-eye pattern on their wings, fly in mid June, as do the Io Moths.  These reveal their large “eyes” by opening their upper wings. 

Polyphemus Moth and Io Moth

    During the day Pale Beauties, a day-flying moth with ivory or greenish wings rests on leaves.  At first glance they resemble bird droppings.

Pale Beauty

    Dragonfly diversity peaks in June.  You can recognize Red Calico Pennants by their red abdomens and reddish wings.  Eastern Pondhawks are common along any pond or slow moving stream.  Widow and White-tailed Skimmers are flying now, as are Twelve-spotted Skimmers and Dot-tailed White-faces.

Calico Pennant pair mating

    Look for Ebony Jewel-wings around shaded stream banks, and wooded seeps.  These emerald green damselflies often appear metallic blue under certain light conditions.  Females have two white spots on the deep-smoky wings.

Ebony Jewel-wing female

    White-tailed Deer have their red summer pelage.  Fawning has begun.  Opossums are carrying young.  Soon we will see young raccoons frolicking behind their mothers.

    Snapping Turtles and other species of shelled reptiles lay eggs in June.  Bullfrogs (a hoarse jug o’ rum) and Green Frogs (a bizarre banjo-like twang) are calling now.  Toad tadpoles are getting bigger.

    Enjoy the lushness of the forest canopy.  Soon fungus, insects, injury, munching mammals and other arboreal disasters will take a toll on the leaves.

    Listen for bees and other insects buzzing in the showy flowers of American Basswood trees.  Striped Maples are in flower now.  Look for fruit developing on Sugar Maple, Norway Maple and Box Elder.

Pasture Rose

    Celebrate the Solstice with a wildflower walk.  Marvel at the colors.

Here are some great wildflower trails for this time of year:

    Try the Butler-Freeport Trail if you're looking for Glaucous Honeysuckle, Barren Strawberry, Swamp Saxifrage, Red Campion, Bowman's Root, Goat’s-beard and Mountain Maple.  The Allegheny Vine could be in bloom.

    At Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve search for Green Violet, Miami Mist, Few-flowered Valerian, Lily-leaved Twayblade, Four-leaved Milkweed, Green Dragon and Large Yellow Wood Sorrel.

    Take a drive to McConnell’s Mill Kildoo Trail to see Indian Cucumber Root and Canada Violets.

     In general look for Wild Yellow Iris, Evening Lychnis, Canada Anemone, Blue-eyed Grass, Wild Sarsaparilla, Poison Hemlock, Dutchman's Pipe, Wild Yam and of course our state flower, Mountain Laurel, is starting to bloom.  Indian Pipes are usually in bloom by the end of June.

Indian Pipes

    Bindweeds, also called Wild Morning Glories, are in bloom.  These pesky garden intruders creep over fences and walls; form dense mats under shrubs.  They entwine through wildflowers and grasses.  Look under the leaves for an unusual beetle, the Golden Tortoise Beetle, “Metrina bicolor”.  This insect, also called “the gold bug”, can change color from reddish brown to bright gold almost instantaneously.

       Click here for the Nature Observer’s checklist of wildflowers, June 8 through June 30.

Black Raspberry

    Taste the first of the summer fruits: Juneberries, early wild strawberries, the first mulberries and, by the end of June, Black Raspberries.  Summer fruits are the sweetest.

   Ferns are filling the forest floor.  The snake-tail fertile frond of the Rattlesnake Fern is now green and erect.  Look for the rust colored fertile fronds of Cinnamon Ferns and the strange fronds of the Interrupted Ferns.  The spore-bearing leaflets “interrupt” the photosynthesizing leaflets on the large fronds.  Both species are conspicuous in early June.  Look for Interrupted Ferns on moist shaded banks and Cinnamon Ferns in bogs and flood plains, often near Skunk Cabbage.

     While in the wet flood plains, look for the light-green spiraling form of False Hellebore.  This moisture-loving flower in the Lily family produces green flowers in June.