September WildRambling
SOME WILDTHINGS TO ENJOY IN THE MONTH AHEAD
It is generally true that we care more for things when we know their names and can no longer dismissively adorn them with the labels of being merely a weed or a bug.
A few years ago, I was co-leading a weekend birders field trip in the local arboretum on behalf of Bird Protection Quebec. It was the peak of spring migration and spectacularly fruitful even for that time of year. Little, jewel-like warblers of many species were lined up almost shoulder to shoulder in one particular blossom-rich sector of the forest. Our species count by late morning was somewhere in excess of 60 and camera memory cards were well filled. On the way back to the car park, we were stopped by a fellow who asked what we were doing as a group. “Birding”, I replied. “We have had a fantastic morning”. I pulled out my notebook, ready to read off the list of species. We all had smiles on our faces. He looked down his nose with a wither. “I don’t believe you for a minute”, he said. “I have been coming here at least weekly all my life, and all I have ever seen are Sparrows and Blackbirds”.
Hard to know how to counter such wilful ignorance, but ever since that day I have redoubled my efforts to show people how to see wildlife and spark their inevitable enthusiasm. That was the chap’s problem – he simply didn’t know what he was seeing, so all of the many species of small brown birds to him were sparrows. On the other hand, I recall standing by the waterside in another nearby park with a spotting scope on its tripod. A small child asked what I was looking at and could he look too, please. Of course, he could. The nearest easily seen bird was a male Mallard. The youngster looked down the scope, went silent, and then excitedly called his parents over to look. “Mum, Dad – you have to see this amazing bird”. They looked and were equally delighted at the stunning colours – all the more so when I told them that this was nothing rare or exotic, but possibly the most common duck in the region that they could find any day. The trouble was that, like the chap in the arboretum, they had never really “seen” it before. We chatted, and the family went away with smiles on their faces. I have had several such encounters … big Pileated Woodpeckers are great subjects with a wow factor and quite common the year round (“What’s that knocking sound, mister?”). All it takes is to show people something they had missed before because they simply did not know how to look at it. This principle works well with flowers too.
This is the first of a new, monthly newsletter extra that will share some interesting plants and creatures that you might encounter when you are walking or just pottering in the garden or a local park during September. There are always plenty of creatures to enjoy every month of the year, even when the snow is deep and crisp and even, even in the suburbs. Happy things to share with (y)our children, perhaps. Or your parents. These are no more than suggestions, just typical of what’s waiting for you out there.
Looking around with a questioning eye is a good habit to acquire. It doesn’t have to be a major expedition to find “nature” because it is all around us. Take a walk around your garden or watch events through the window with a coffee in hand. Wander down the road on the way to the shops and enjoy other people’s gardens as you pass. Go to the park and look in the quieter corners … just go out somewhere, say for half an hour, on a “September Fieldtrip”. If you have kids, maybe ask them to accompany you. If you are a kid, then definitely take your parents along so they can learn from you. You could pack a camera/smartphone and bring home snapshots of some of the species you don’t recognize – I am happy to try to answer questions, or you can use an online AI-based identification resource such as iNaturalist at https://www.inaturalist.org/
What would be your advice for a young birder? “It’s okay to be a nerd. It’s okay to be the guy who runs around looking at birds and nobody else at school gives a damn. I realized that this is what brings me joy, this is what I’m about, and I’m going to stick with it. And that was maybe the best choice I ever made.”
(Christian Cooper)
SHOES AND JACKET ON, THEN – LET’S GO FOR THAT WALK.
SOME SEPTEMBER BIRDS
After the summer lull, things get busy in the bird world again as September rolls around. There are the resident adults and their recently hatched youngsters, augmented by others coming down from the north as cold weather approaches. Southbound migration is getting underway. Many of the brightly coloured spring migrants have muted their plumage and are now, for a very good reason, known as “confusing fall warblers”. Look in your gardens, in local parks, if you live near me, remember to visit the Arboretum or whatever is your nearby equivalent. Anywhere with some running water, such as a pond, a stream, a small garden waterfall even, will be especially appealing to these birds in passage, particularly during the morning hours and at dusk. Anywhere there is food is good – nothing sadder than seeing an empty bird feeder in someone’s garden, so if you have one, keep it filled. Birds such as these might be seen …
Shown in the photograph above are a Northern Parula splashing about with friends of other species, a Swainson’s Thrush and a Bay-breasted Warbler; all of those are in migration heading southwards. The fourth bird is a male American Goldfinch starting to lose his lustre - the males exchange their bright yellow feathers for the duller yellow-green of the females and will stay with us all through the winter, so make sure your feeders are cleaned and full of seeds and other energy-providing food that they need to get through the cold season.
How many of these birds and their friends and relations will you see in September?
Plants and Fungi
Plants are naturalist-friendly because they stay still and let you get a good look at them. The main flowering season is behind us, but for all that, there are a good number of species that still flower in September and more that are bearing fruits, in particular berries of some sort. No need to go far either – there are almost certainly some interesting wild flowers in a corner of your garden or in a shady spot nearby.
Today, taxonomists consider fungi to be in a separate kingdom of their own and no longer to be a peculiar sort of plant. A good number of fungi are around still, and the one I have chosen is, shall we say, a little unusual. The example illustrated is the Devil’s Dipstick, which was recently the cause of some amusement on the town’s Facebook group … for obvious reasons. If you have a wood chip path or some decaying wood in your garden, you could well find this popping up around now – this photo was seen in a friend’s garden in town. Look out too for Dog Vomit Slime Mould, especially on wood chip paths … worth googling.
The flowers in the composite picture above are, viewing clockwise, obedient plant, Devil’s dipstick, wild aster, baneberry and spotted jewelweed
If you were wondering where the bees and other flower-visiting insects are right now, then find a good clump of golden rod and there they will be if there are any to be seen at all.
Insects
The illustrated insects below are not the most common - after all, you won’t have trouble recognizing hive bees and bumblebees and cabbage-white butterflies which are the most easily seen, so I have selected some that are bit unusual, but still not impossible to observe. Some fun creatures to whet your appetite. While looking for these smart animals, you will certainly see many commoner, but equally fascinating, species.
The photos (clockwise again) are clouded sulphur butterflies, a pair of mating raspberry crown borer moths, a painted lady butterfly, a fall field cricket and a yellow collared scape moth … all seen at some time during September in Baie-D’urfé
We will go for another Fieldtrip in October
Over the years, and not by intention, I seem to have become (one of) the go-to people in our small community who is approached when anyone sees a plant or a creature and wants to know its name. They often post on social media and because I enjoy the challenge, they have got used to me finding the answers. This is good, as it keeps an old chap sharp, but also because I am quite convinced that helping people to know what they are looking at is an important step along the way to making them care about the natural world. The first step to wanting to save it. It’s not that I necessarily always know the names of the things I am asked about, but I do know where to find the information – and that’s really what matters. There are those who go around with their eyes shut, but most people do enjoy wildlife and want to know more about it – all the more so if they have inquisitive kids pressing them for answers.
To quote from the Xerxes Society : “Perhaps the only thing better than learning about and exploring our natural world is the ability to share it with others.”
BONUS
After your rambles in search of September’s wildlife, settle down with a cup of tea (or whatever is your pleasure) and read this short article that I came across in the past few days. Prepare your bathroom accordingly 😉
The final paragraph is worth pondering upon:
Natural historical knowledge alone … never did and never will stop the despoilers, be they rubber barons, dam-builders or gold-miners. It may be the lesson of this story that scientific curiosity and the social graces are more easily conscripted than they realise, and then put to work precisely to divert attention while the gold-mining continues.
Small Milestone Thank You
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Richard, I am more like your dismissive person than I should be, but hopefully I should not betray my ignorance in front of you. Two days back a very tall Heron appeared in the garden. It walked the full length, looked around the various vegetable areas (looking for frogs perhaps?) all at a stately pace.
Thank.fully 'Rogue' was asleep in the porch. We should have missed 10 minutes of pleasure
Richard, you're turning my coming September into a month of potential wonder. With what? With your presentation of what you see around you near Montreal, your encouragement to do and share the same wherever I am, and your introduction to Horatio Morpurgo's article in the London Magazine about the 1912-45 Vicar of the Amazon, and his genteel seeing into other species and deadly blindness toward his own culture's unseeing expansions.