The weather is hot and very, very humid, barely cooling down at all overnight. Yesterday, the chickens were panting, but it didn’t keep them out of the forest, and I don’t think it slowed them down very much. They don’t like heat and humidity very much.
At the moment, the only one who appears to be slowed by the weather is me. The foxes are still out at night, barking at all hours. I could sleep through that barking, I believe, but when the foxes bark so does my own pack of canines, and I can’t sleep through that.
I have yet to see the young blue jays that hatched in the crook of the American beech tree that borders my driveway. I know they are there—the parent birds are vigilant about any would be intruders. I saw them chase a squirrel the other day, when I’m pretty sure the squirrel was without nefarious intentions and was only on a mission to reach the other side of the driveway. Maybe even squirrels want to take short cuts when it's so hot.
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2 comments:
Carolyn: I was away on vacation, and then extraordinarily busy when I returned, so I haven't commented lately; excuse me. One of my obligations that vacation put behind schedule has been my annual forest breeding bird census. I have to go into the woods on 8 mornings from late May into June to census the birds breeding in a 40-acre tract in my preserve. I bring this up in relation to your post because I really can't go into the woods comfortably on a morning after it rains the day before, so I need two back-to-back rain free days to conduct the census comfortably. And, finding back-to-back rain-free days has been tough since I got back from vacation. Actually, I went into the woods yesterday (Wednesday, June 17) despite the fact that we had a short but intense downpour at 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening. I figured the woods would mostly dry out overnight. They didn't, and the vegetation was very wet; fortunately, I had the wherewithal to wear a Gore-Tex raincoat, so only my pants got soaked through, not my shirt, binoculars, i.d. book and tally sheet.
Scott: I'm glad I'm not the only one who avoids the woods when it's dripping wet! I don't see much then, either, so I'm not surprised you wait to do your census until you can at least get into the woods. This is an odd June so far--more rainy than usual but as humid as July. I'm glad our rain deficit has gone and I just hope the rest of the summer isn't quite as odd as this month has been.
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