What’s Happening Outside in Summer 2018

Bill Willis

September 7, 2018

• Summer showers have allowed toadstools to emerge from rotten wood below ground
• Late summer flowers are budding and beginning the period leading to fall colors
• The animal breeding season is nearing its end
• Spring annuals are setting seed that are a welcome food source for birds and rodents

The highs of August are reaching into the 90’s with climbing humidifies. It’s feeling like it’s really summer with all the daily showers. It’s time to pace yourself, stay hydrated, and don’t over exert.

What Is Happening Now?

• Turtles that laid eggs in April may now see the emergence of their young.
• The flags in the Memorial Garden indicate where nests are located; raccoons destroyed some nests.
• In mid-July the Lakeview Drive wildflower meadow was planted in Zinnias that are now producing flower buds. They are now starting to bloom.
• The Monarch Milkweed Butterfly Garden was allowed to follow normal secession with volunteer plants, producing a mixture of native wildflowers and grasses.
• Goose Toulouse’s mate apparently didn’t return to campus with him in the spring and once again he didn’t mate.
• Gold Finches are picking seed from the Gloriosa Daisies on the 110 Warehouse site.
• The patio shrubs have recovered well from that period of extreme heat and water shortage.
• The Wildlife and Industry Together (WAIT) hopes to add the 110 Warehouse site to the Pollinator/Butterfly Garden program.
• Most of the Purple Martins have flown south.
• The last nesting of the Bluebirds is well underway.
• The amount of blue-green cyanobacteria is much less than last year and is in distinct clumps rather than sheets
• Soon the Goldenrod and Biden plants should be blooming in ditches and road shoulders.
• Campus fringe trees (females) along the employee walkway are heavy with fruit.
• Seventy Canada Geese have completed their molt and most have flown to other locations.

It’s time to pace yourself, stay hydrated, and don’t over exert.