Each August, Staff Phenologist John Latimer celebrates the end of deer fly season, the emergence of “Labor Day ants,” and the beginning of fall migration. It’s a busy month, full of changing colors and cavorting young animals.
One particularly enjoyable sight for John this week was a bunch of tiny tree froglets, freshly emerged from the pond where they had been growing as tadpoles (also known as polywogs) all summer. John describes initially spotting them as tiny green dots on the cattails. On further inspection, these little dots turned out to be young frogs, some still with remnants of their tails!
This week’s report also details Ruffed Grouses’ love of dust baths, how to use galls to identify goldenrods, and when to look for hazelnuts. Enjoy!
Topics
- Introduction (0:00-0:23)
- August colors (0:23-2:30)
- Insects of August (2:30-4:15)
- Beginning of migration (4:15-4:37)
- Current berries, seeds, and nuts (4:37-8:37)
- Wildflowers (8:37-13:46)
- Goldenrod galls (13:46-16:17)
- Ruffed Grouse dust baths (16:17-16:52)
- Insects (16:52-17:20)
- Baby tree frogs (17:20-18:30)
- Conclusion (18:30-19:07)
What have you seen out there? Let us know: email us at comments@kaxe.org or text us at 218-326-1234.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, subscribe to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
