Midsummer: Growth surge slows; creatures prepare for fall

The summer solstice is a month past. Now we have midsummer, a time of transition when our world slowly starts tilting toward autumn.

The rapid, robust growth of spring and early summer is settling down, as if nature is catching its breath after expending so much energy. Midsummer’s mellowing is noticeable all around us now in the natural world.

Songbirds are ceasing their singing as they wind down their nesting seasons and breeding hormone levels plummet; by early August, the birds mostly will be silent.

Their post-breeding silence also will be due to their preoccupation with molting into a new set of feathers. It will be a quiet time as they forage for food and nutrients for the energy to grow new plumage and prepare for winter or, for many of them, fall migration.

Some species already are well into preparing to move south. Ruby throated hummingbirds are gorging

on nectar to store energy for their arduous journeys to winter homes in Mexico and Central America. Some

male hummers already have departed. Heading out any day now for winter grounds as far south as Bolivia will be purple martins, orchard orioles and some warbler species.

On the coast, the loggerhead sea turtle nesting season is winding down. Nearly 2,000 nests have been documented so far this season on barrier island beaches. Now, baby turtles are hatching and crawling at night to the ocean, trying to reach the surf before being eaten by feral hogs, raccoons and other predators.

In the mammal world, young raccoons, foxes, armadillos and bobcats are leaving their mothers and striking out on their own. In the mornings, whitetailed does cautiously bring out their fawns to feed in meadows. Bucks are sporting new velvet-covered antlers.

IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The South Delta Aquarid meteor shower will be visible most of next week, reaching a peak of 15 meteors per hour on Thursday ( July 27). Look to the southeast from midnight until dawn.

The moon will be new on Sunday. Mercury is low in the west around dusk. Venus rises in the east a few hours before dawn. Jupiter is low in the west just after sunset and will appear near the moon on Friday. Saturn rises out of the east just before sunset.

MASCF / CREATIVE COMMONS / WIKIPEDIA Midsummer is when white-tailed deer does start bringing their fawns, like this one, into open meadows in the mornings to feed.