NATURE CALENDAR

From alpine flowers to stinky cabbage, salmonruns to migrating birds, here’s where to enjoywild Whatcom County for the next 12 months.

MARCH✦✦ Ladybugs come out ofhibernation.✦ The fragrance of bud-ding black cottonwoodfills the air with a sweetbalsam scent.✦ If you walk close to apond early in the month,you might hear a lowmurmuring sound. It’smale red-legged frogscalling beneath the waterfor mates.✦ Red-flowering currantblooms.✦ Silver-spotted tigermoth caterpillars, whichhatch in the fall andspend the winter huddledtogether in Douglas firtrees, begin to spreadout.✦ Crustaceans, fish,mollusks and other seacreatures release thou-sands of tiny larvae intothe plankton throughMarch and April.✦ Brant geese that win-ter in Mexico stop atPadilla Bay in SkagitCounty.✦ Great blue heronsmove to colonies.✦ Mid-month, violet-green swallows andrufous hummingbirdsarrive.✦ Amphibian egg mass-es appear in ponds.✦ Trillium blooms.

SEPTEMBER✦ Bears move through moun-tain meadows, eating blue-berries.✦ Sockeye salmon run inCanyon Creek.✦ Mid-month, western grebesarrive for the winter. Oncehere, they replace their oldfeathers with new ones all atonce, a molting process thatcan take up to a month andrenders them flightless duringthat time. They instead swimaround local waters, fishing.✦ Orb-weaving spiders reachpeak size, and mate.✦ Southern resident orcasleave at the end of themonth.✦ Subalpine daisy blooms,bringing to an end the flower-ing season in the meadowsabove the tree line.✦ Two weeks after the firstthorough rain of the fall,mushrooms sprout, includingchanterelles and boletes.✦ Huge wracks of eelgrassand kelp wash up on beach-es.✦✦ Blueberries fruit in themountains.

APRIL✦ Little brown myotis batsreturn from their winterhibernation spots. (There’s anursery colony of hundredsof moms and their young inthe attic of the HovanderHouse at Hovander Home-stead Park in Ferndale. Theattic isn’t open to the publicbut the bats can be seenduring spring, summer andearly fall as they fly out ofthe house at dusk to feedon insects.)✦ California darners, thefirst dragonflies of the sea-son, emerge from lakes andponds.✦ Bald eagle eggs hatch. Fortwo weeks, the parents taketurns watching over thechicks. After that, the par-ents go on hunting expedi-tions, leaving the chicksalone in the nest.✦ April 8 is the average datefor the last frost.✦ Great blue herons beginto nest. The male gatherssticks; the female weavesthem into the nest. Thefemale lays three to fiveeggs. Both parents helpincubate them for about fourweeks.✦ Big-leaf maples bloom.✦ Camas blooms in low-lyingmeadows.✦ Spawning time for CherryPoint herring begins, attract-ing flocks of surf scoters.✦ Gray whales migrate alongthe Washington coast ontheir way from Baja Califor-nia to their summer feedingareas in the Bering Strait.✦ River flows rise as snowstarts melting in the moun-tains. If heavy rains fall onthe melting snow, floodingcan result.✦ Snow geese leave by theend of the month.✦ This year’s bull kelp reach-es the water’s surface.✦ In April and May, planktonis at its thickest in seawater.✦ Morels appear and oystermushrooms fruit on hard-woods now through May.

OCTOBER✦ Early in the month,migrating birds of prey ridethermals near ridge tops.✦ Douglas fir cones open,releasing seeds.✦ When big-leaf mapleslose their leaves, mossesand licorice ferns on theirbranches start growing.✦ Mountain fall colors areat their most brilliant.✦ Rough-legged hawksarrive from the Arctic,along with a variety ofhawks and owls that win-ter in the area.✦ Bulk of dunlin arrive.✦ Elk rut. This time ofyear, elk bulls often bugle.✦ Snow geese arrive mid-month.✦ Gray whales migratesouth again.✦ Chinook, coho andchum salmon begin run-ning in Whatcom Creekinto December.✦ Coho and chum beginrunning in ChuckanutCreek into December.✦ Coho runs can be seenon Thompson and Boydcreeks into December.✦ From October into April,black bears den and entera modified form of hiber-nation known as torpor.Though drowsy, bears candefend themselves andtheir cubs.✦ First major snow in themountains by the end ofthe month.✦ Brant geese arrive atPadilla Bay near Oct. 31.✦ Little brown myotis batsleave to hibernate in theirwinter homes for five tosix months. Once there,they enter a state of tor-por in which their metabo-lism slows drastically.

MAY✦✦ Southern residentorcas arrive in the area.✦ Dunlin fly north.✦ Wood ducks and mal-lards fledge.✦ The first chicks hatchin great blue heroncolonies.✦ Western grebes leavefor the interior.✦ Local black-tailed deerstart having fawns. If yousee one alone, don’ttouch it. It most likelyisn’t abandoned.✦ Mid-month, the westerntanager, a colorful song-bird with a red head andyellow body, arrives. It’sparticularly drawn to cher-ry trees.✦ Pond lily blooms.✦ Trumpeter and tundraswans leave for thenorth.✦ Brant geese leave fortheir breeding grounds inthe Arctic.✦ Steelhead and sea-runcutthroat trout run inThompson and Boydcreeks through June.✦ Salmonberries fruit.✦ Cottonwoods begin torelease their fluffy seeds.✦ Stinging nettles bloom.✦ Elk herds disperse atthe end of the month.The cows each give birthto a single calf.✦ Mountain goats beginto have kids at the end ofthe month.

NOVEMBER✦ Trumpeter swans arrive.✦ Mosses mate, theirsperm swimming throughrainwater. Their spore bod-ies will form over the winter.✦ Every few years, snowyowls fly south to winterhere.✦ Mid-month is the lastflight of the autumn mead-owhawk, and the last drag-onfly of the season.✦ Varied thrushes appear ininhabited areas of the low-lands.✦ Hedgehog and matsutakemushrooms fruit.✦ Extreme high tides of win-ter are pushed higher stillby November storms.✦ Most slugs go into hiber-nation.✦ Coho and chum beginrunning in the NooksackRiver and Squalicum Creekand continue into Decem-ber.✦ Chum begin running inPadden Creek and continueinto December.✦ Coho begin running inFish Trap Creek and contin-ue into December.

JUNE✦ High summer in the birdworld; all of the summerbirds have arrived from thetropics, and the wintermigrants have left. Thislasts at least until the endof the month, when westernsandpipers stop on theirway south.✦ Late in the month, snowmelts above the tree line.✦ As the snow melts, gla-cier lilies bloom.✦ The first mosquitoesappear.✦ Indian pipe, spottedcoralroot and other pale,parasitic plants emergefrom woodland soil.✦ Serviceberries, wildstrawberries, thimbleberriesand red huckleberries fruit.✦ The Earth’s position rela-tive to the sun and moonbrings extreme low tides, tothe delight of beach-combers and the demise ofsea creatures caught in thesun.✦✦ Harbor seals give birthto their pups this monthand July. If you see a pupalone on a beach, do notapproach it. Its mother willmost likely return for it.

DECEMBER✦✦ Bald eagles congre-gate along the Nooksackand Skagit rivers. Theeagles stay around, indiminishing numbers,until mid-February.✦ All overwintering birdshave arrived.✦ With the cold weatherat the end of the monthcomes the bright red fruit-ing body of Sarcoscyphacoccinea, the scarlet cupfungus, which grows onfallen hardwood branches.✦✦ The lowest winter tidesoccur in the middle of thenight, the best time tosee unsuspecting sun-flower stars and giantsea stars of all sizes.

JULY✦✦ Butterflies congregateon Skyline Divide, YellowAster Butte and otherlower Cascade peaks.✦ Toadlets of westerntoad emerge from thewater. Don’t touch; they’refragile. Places to seethem: Silver Lake on July4 weekend, and HanneganPass, Yellow Aster Butte,Elbow Lake trails.✦ Wildflowers abound inmountain meadows.✦ The algae that causesred tide blooms in greatnumbers in some loca-tions, causing buildups ofdeadly poisons in nearbyshellfish. In some places,the problem persists intoOctober and beyond.✦ Peak time for dragon-flies. Don’t be surprised ifthey follow you around;they’re territorial.✦ Big-leaf maples formseeds.✦ The first young learn tofly in great blue heroncolonies. For the next fewweeks they hang aroundthe nest, where their par-ents feed them.✦ Bald eagle chicks learnto fly. They remaindependent on their par-ents, who teach them tohunt over the next fewweeks.✦ Moon jellies and fried-egg jellies appear in localwaters. In some places,such as Eastsound onOrcas Island, they canform huge crowds.

JANUARY✦ Fairy shrimp and finger-nail clams are hatched outand active in small, isolatedwetland pools.✦ Snow becomes heavy inthe mountains. It’s a goodtime to find animal tracks,including elk, snowshoehare, cougar and bobcat.✦ Mountain goats and elkmove to lower elevations. Agood spot to see mountaingoats is the cliffs alongBaker River Trail.✦ Truffles are abundant inthe woods. These fungi staybelow the surface, releasingfragrances that entice ani-mals to eat them, passingon the spores.✦ Mid-month, snow geesefrom the Fraser River deltain British Columbia fly overWhatcom County to theSkagit River delta, makingfor tens of thousands ofsnow geese.✦ Great horned owls starttheir deep, hooting calls formates.✦ Locally, breeding baldeagles begin nesting. Theyeither build a structure outof sticks, or add sticks toan old one.✦ Coho run in Thompsonand Boyd creeks.✦ Witch hazel blooms.✦ Late in the month, seawa-ter is at its clearest, withless plankton than at anyother time of year.

AUGUST✦ Rufous hummingbirdsmove from lowlands tomeadows above the treeline.✦ Paintbrush blooms inmountain meadows.✦ Perseid meteor showerpeaks during the pre-dawnhours of Aug. 12 and Aug.13, although a full moon onAug. 13 is expected toblock out the fainter mete-ors. To see the show, getaway from bright city lightsand look northeast.✦ Mid-month, giant damp-wood termites swarm andfly. Often wrongly called fly-ing ants, the red insects areclumsy fliers.✦ A dinner plate-sized jellycalled lion’s mane booms inpopulation.✦ The last young learn to flyin great blue heroncolonies.✦ Chinook salmon run inBoyd Creek through Sep-tember.✦ Rivers reach their lowestflows.✦ All the mallards look likefemales of the species butaren’t. It’s just that maleducks have gone intoeclipse plumage. Gone aretheir flashy gray bodies andiridescent green heads —replaced by the mottledbrown-and-black bodies andlighter brown heads seenon females. The males aretrying to look dowdy, so asnot to attract the attentionof predators. Come matingseason in spring, they’ll beback in their usual finery.

FEBRUARY✦ Barred owls start theirmating calls.✦ Late in the month, bullkelp anchors to the seafloor as deep as 30 feetdown, and begins growing.✦ Alder catkins releasepollen, making life miser-able for allergy sufferers.✦ Indian plum blooms.✦ Tree swallows arrive,one of the first birds tomigrate north for summer.✦ On any night after heavyrain with temperaturescolder than 50, you willsee adult salamandersand frogs migrating towardbreeding grounds.✦ Thousands of snowgeese fly from the SkagitRiver delta to the FraserRiver delta.✦ Tree frogs start theirchorus.✦ Late this month, skunkcabbage produces heatand forces its way throughsnow and frost in swampyplaces.✦ Bald eagles lay eggs inthe last days of Februaryand the first days ofMarch.

Sources: Shona Aitken, Glen Alexan-der, Herbert Brown, Roger Christo-phersen, Fred Daugert, JimEdwards, Brady Green, JenniferHahn, Al Hanners, Heather Higgins-Aanes, Marie Hitchman, Vikki Jack-son, Joe Meche, Todd Murray, Patri-cia Otto, Fred Rhoades, Holly Roger,Doug Stark, Sylvia Thorpe, TerryWahl, Bert Webber, Sue Webber, TheWhale Museum at Friday Harbor,“The Sibley Guide to Birds,” byDavid Allen Sibley, “MushroomsDemystified,” by David Arora, “ABirder’s Guide to Washington,” byHal Opperman with contributionsfrom members of the WashingtonOrnithological Society, WashingtonDepartment of Fish & Wildlife.

Photos: Bellingham Herald file

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