By Ted Purcell
\nCommunity correspondent<\/p>\n
June is when summer officially begins, and outdoors, all kinds of things are going on. Vegetable gardens are mostly planted and growing like crazy, as are lawns and native plants; birds are on their nests and feeding young; fishing is great almost everywhere; and the days are the longest (sunshine wise) of the year. We will approach 15 hours and 30 minutes between sunrise and sunset, with the \u201clongest\u201d day being June 21st.<\/p>\n
The morning chorus of birds begins early (between 3:30 and 4 a.m.). For some folks that is perhaps too early, but it is beautiful to hear. As the middle part of the day gets warm, bird song and animal activity dwindle, so if you want to see and hear things, target the beginning or end (evening) of the day. We had a bear truck through our yard at 6:15 a.m. recently. I also have heard from several folks recently that bears have taken down their hummingbird feeders. Their desire for \u201csweet\u201d runs deep.<\/p>\n
This past weekend I fished in the saltwater on Cape Cod one day and took part in the Breeding Bird Census at Wachusett Meadow Sanctuary the other. A number of my students have been sharing their fishing news with me. Local ponds with warmer water have hungry sunfish, largemouth bass and pickerel active these days. Bass and sunfish are on or coming off their beds (nest in fish talk) and are hungry. June is a great time for all kinds of outdoor activities. Generally, it is not too hot yet, and while stinging insects that plague some folks are starting, they are generally not thick yet. Ticks, however, are rampant this year, a good tick check after outdoor activity is essential.<\/p>\n
Fishing the saltwater right now is as good as it gets. Striped bass, bluefish, black sea bass, fluke and scup are all biting, and tuna season starts soon. On recent trips we managed to catch our limit of black sea bass, my personal favorite to eat, and nice numbers of striped bass and bluefish off of Monomoy on Cape Cod. If you go fishing for striped bass, remember that the regulations have changed. One fish per angler per day between 28 and 31 inches. This is to leave larger, breeding-size females in the water, as the last few years have been poor breeding years in the rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson River, which is where the majority of striped bass breed. Black sea bass and scup are great to catch, as they are not \u201ctechnically\u201d difficult to catch, and right now one does not need to go too far offshore. Striped bass also have been feeding well in the Cape Cod Canal, which is great shore access for people who do not boat.<\/p>\n
Each June across the country, surveys are done of breeding bird populations. This is a great way for \u201cbirders\u201d and nature enthusiasts to get involved with citizen science, contributing to our knowledge of bird populations. Data from such efforts are used to study how habitat change, climate change and other factors are impacting bird populations, which in turn can educate us about how human activities are potentially impacting our population.<\/p>\n
At Wachusett Meadow Mass Audubon Sanctuary on Route 62 in Princeton, decades of annual survey data taken in the same way on the same weekend each year in June, at the height of bird breeding, are recorded. Spring migration was in April and May, so any birds around now are \u201cbreeding\u201d birds. Some nest in trees in your typical bird nest built of sticks, others in tree cavities (holes) and some right on the ground. We take the sanctuary, break it into 10 sections and a team of one to three people walks each section, recording the different species of birds and the number of individuals of each species seen. It is not perfect, as birds do move, but in breeding season they tend to stay close to the nest and their preferred habitat. When done the same way each year, it provides a valid estimate.<\/p>\n
If you are not familiar with Wachusett Meadow, it is definitely worth exploring. There are trails ranging from gentle and wheelchair accessible to hillside trails to the base of Wachusett Mountain, a wildlife pond with canoeing, and an active sheep herd and barn, worth a visit for all ages.<\/p>\n
Featured Flora and Fauna<\/strong><\/p>\n Sunfish aka Kivers aka Bluegills aka Pumpkinseeds<\/p>\n No matter what name you call them, these fish are the fish that have \u201chooked\u201d many a youngster on fishing. They are plentiful in most local ponds and lakes, they eagerly eat worms and many other baits, and are \u201ceasy\u201d to catch. Some serious fishermen will call them a nuisance while they fish for bass or trout, but without them many of us would never have gotten into fishing.<\/p>\n Properly known as the sunfish family, which includes large and smallmouth bass, bluegills and pumpkinseeds are the two most common, and largest species in local ponds. They are recognizable by the bright orange coloring on their underside. Locally many people just call them \u201ckivers\u201d or \u201ckibbies.\u201d In the southern U.S., they are known as \u201cbream\u201d; they grow larger because of the longer growing season and are eaten regularly. As a kid, I would bring them home and my mother would pan fry them. I thought they tasted great. In June you can see them close to shore, where they will use their fins to clear a 1-2 foot diameter circle in the shallow bottom where they will lay their eggs. Under natural conditions they eat tiny zooplankton, microscopic to barely visible small animals, all sorts of aquatic insects and small fish, snails and other small animals living in our local ponds.<\/p>\n They provide food, as they are prey, to larger gamefish such as bass and pickerel as well as to birds such as great blue herons and mammals such as otters. They occupy the middle of food chains in pond ecosystems. Fishermen can catch them with earthworms, mealworms, pieces of freshwater mussels and artificial bait such as powerbait, flies and small lures. They are the classic kid catch using a bobber with a worm on a hook underneath it. Moore State Park, Long Pond, Rutland State Park, Eagle Lake, Chaffins, Dawson and Waschacum all have them, as do small neighborhood ponds.<\/p>\n Sunset will be after 8 p.m. all month. This is a great time of year to get out after dinner in cool temperatures and enjoy the birds, plants, butterflies and other organisms that are out doing the same thing. Check the Goings On page for local programs and guided walks, or get out on your own.<\/p>\n I have been teaching my students to use the iNaturalist app recently so we can name what we are seeing. Knowing the names of our local wildlife is a dying tradition, perhaps because we rely so little on wild food. For some of us it is fascinating, almost essential to name what we see, but for others just being out and enjoying the view is fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ted Purcell Community correspondent June is when summer officially begins, and outdoors, all kinds of things are going on. Vegetable gardens are mostly planted and growing like crazy, as are lawns and native plants; birds are on their nests and feeding young; fishing is great almost everywhere; and the days are the longest (sunshine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}