A few years ago in mid-August, I stood with my friend Jeff as we watched a horde of yellow jackets manically devour a sawfly larva. It was one of those sights that make you shudder in both horror and awe. He turned to me and exclaimed, “There’s a lot of energy in the system right now!”
Solstice was a month ago, but according to Jeff, July 22 is the day to celebrate “peak summer.” The energy in the forest continues to build for a few more weeks, but many species have begun the slow slide towards autumn. Decay outpaces growth.
This year, July 22 was the night that the chorus of katydids transitioned from smattered song to cacophony. It so happens that this week the summer rains returned in earnest. Multitudes of mushrooms, in unimaginable shapes and colors, emerged overnight from the forest floor. In the foggy mornings, hummingbirds and their fledglings throng the jewelweed patch. When the sun shines, the joe-pye-weed sways under a rabble of swallowtails. The slow tide of green that has been rising since spring is at its crest and will soon begin to ebb.
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