New wild year under way

By Charles Seabrook

For the AJC

Happy New Year. Predicting what will happen in the wild this new year is easy: Georgia’s native plants and animals have been following the same seasonal rhythms for eons. Here are a few natural events you can expect during a wild year in Georgia:

Enlarge photo

Eileen McDermott. Barred owl held by Emily Walker, Chattahoochee Nature Center Wildlife naturalist.

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January: Some bald eagles already have babies in nests; great horned owls are incubating eggs and barred owls start breeding. Lots of ducks and other waterfowl appear on lakes and wetlands. Woodcocks start courting. Spring peepers and other winter breeding frogs call on warm nights.

February: Male cardinals begin singing territorial songs. Bluebirds check out nesting sites. Purple martins start arriving. Wild turkeys start mating. The Great Backyard Bird Count takes place Feb. 12-15. Ospreys are nesting. First litters of gray squirrels are born. Black bear cubs are born in dens.

March: Yellow flowers of Carolina jessamine bloom; dogtooth violets, bluets, bloodroot, trout lilies and dogwoods also bloom. Pinkish mists of blooming red maples and whitish clouds of flowering Chickasaw plums beautify roadsides. Carolina wrens start nesting. Brown thrashers begin singing. Right whales with newborn calves migrate back up north.

April: Forests and mountain slopes sport every shade of green as trees leaf out. Numerous spring wildflowers, including trilliums, bloom. Ruby-throated hummingbirds, waves of warblers and other migratory songbirds arrive in full breeding plumage. Bobcats and raccoons are born. Swallowtails and many other butterflies flit about.

May: Nesting season begins in earnest for most songbirds. Most bats start giving birth. Loggerhead sea turtles crawl onto beaches at night to lay eggs. Alligators begin breeding. Alligator snapping turtles nest. White-tailed fawns are born. Mountain laurel blooms.

June: Cicadas emerge and begin singing. Fireflies start flickering. Chorus, green tree, pig, carpenter and more than a dozen other species of frogs are heard during evenings. Sourwood blooms attract honeybees.

July: Jewel weed, butterfly weed and black-eyed Susan bloom. Black bears begin breeding. Ruby-throated hummingbirds wrap up nesting season. Swallow-tailed and Mississippi kites, purple martins and tree swallows gather to migrate south. Baby sea turtles hatch on the coast.

August: Some early migrating songbirds, such as yellow warbler, head south for the winter. Many snake eggs hatch. Fall wildflowers begin blooming along roadsides and field edges. Orb-weaving spider webs appear.

September: Fall songbird migration picks up. Peak bloom time for asters, goldenrods, joe-pye weed, ironweed and other fall wildflowers.

October: Fall migration peaks. Deer mating season begins. Late in month, spectacular leaf colors put on an annual show in mountains. Wild fruits such as paw paw, blackgum, devil’s walking stick and wild grape are abundant. Winter birds — ducks, kinglets, waxwings, sapsuckers — arrive.

November: High-flying sandhill cranes are seen heading south. Ornate chorus frogs begin calling. Downy, hairy, red-bellied and red-headed woodpeckers visit suet feeders.

December: Opossums begin breeding. Right whales arrive for calving season. Christmas bird counts are held.

In the sky: The moon will be last quarter on Thursday, says David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum. Mars rises out of the east just after sunset. Jupiter is in the west at sunset and sets in the west about three hours after sunset. Saturn rises out of the east about an hour before midnight and appears near the moon Wednesday night.