Everyone is aware of spring, summer, fall, winter, but
this is how I learned Denver has a dragonfly season and immediately I wondered if the area is visited by many species or just comes alive with a population and how it feels to see and how it sounds.
Here we have two other seasons: big yellow butterfly season and Saharan dust season. Big yellow butterfly season occurs in July or August. For about a week, two species, both large and yellow but one with small yellow dots on their wings, fly over en masse and the sky is teeming with them. It is wild to drive because you have the sensation you are going to hit them but of course they loft up. In the garden they fly above the house but sometimes stop for a moment to drink at the tippy top flowers of the Hamelia patens, which is taller than the roofline.
Saharan dust season is just what it sounds like, when the dust of the Sahara crosses the Atlantic and comes across the Peninsula. This happens when it happens; we always know a week or so in advance. When the dust arrives, we get spectacular sunsets typically, but those with breathing concerns often find it a difficult few days. The sky looks extremely different, visibility reduced, and then suddenly it is gone, leaving us to wipe everything down.
Excluding rainy season and pollen season, what are the other seasons where you are, and do you look forward to them?
Well, thereās mud season (when the snow melts, but the leaves arenāt really out yet), maple sugaring season (usually coincides with mud season), vernal pool season (wood frogs and spring peepers calling, ambystomids migrating), black fly season (they bite. they bite A LOT), leaf peeper season (tourists driving slowly and erratically looking at the fall foliage), and probably others Iāve forgotten.
When the annual cicadas first call. When the first Autumn Meadowhawk dragonflies show up (in July! SO discouraging, because itās the first sign of the end of the summer for me).
I was going to say, mud season is a big one. Its when everything kind of sorts to start to melt but the ground is still too hard to really accept much water, and our clay heavy soil just becomes endless brown muck.
Mud season in Ohio usually comes as part of False Spring, which is usually a week or so in february when you think its about to be nice and then WHOOPS its snowing again.
Theres āThe Polleningā in which every tree in the area decides its time to turn my black car yellow and reduce me to scarfing two zyrtec a day and praying that, one day, the itching and sneezing with go away.
Honorable mention to what i will call āthis is why i dont live in Floridaā or āSatanās buttholeā where we get like a week of summer storms followed by weather and humidity both in the high nineties, and then i basically feel like Iām dying because darnit, my happy place is like 65 and slightly damp.
In New England, it sometimes feels like we have two wintersā¦ it gets colder and we have moderate snow until around February-March, when, after itās gotten a bit warmer, we often have cold snaps and a few good snowstorms. Really messes with the plants unfortunately, but as someone with a pollen allergy, I have to take what I can get.
Here in the Gulf Islands on Canadaās West coast, we get what I call second spring. When the first fall rains come after a generally dry summer we get a flush of new green growth. Even plants that are considered annuals in the rest of Canada will sprout and put on considerable growth before the frosts come. Since we seldom get more than a couple of weeks of snow the annuals seem to survive and get a head start in the spring.
ŠŠ°Š±ŃŠµ Š»ŠµŃŠ¾ (womanās summer) is a warm period of autumn so September and early October in lucky years.
Spring is dividee in two: muddy one when rivers overflow and green one that is better than summer.)
California has fire season which generally corresponds to the hottest, driest months. Aside from all of the suffering it inflicts, itās sometimes results in unique fire follower plants.
Here is Wisconsin, hunting seasons are well-known to all, as hunting is super popular here. Deer season and duck season are the most well-known, but you may also hear of turkey season, pheasant season, rabbit season, wolf season, Morning Dove season, woodcock season, and occasionally others. Many hunters want there to be a Sandhill Crane season, but that one isnāt happening yet.
Sturgeon spearing season is also a big deal, as is ice fishing season.
The January Thaw is that one time in mid-winter it gets above freezing for a couple weeks and everything melts. It happened every year but not necessarily January (but everyone will still call it that even if itās in December or February).
Many in the state refer to any time of year where things arenāt frozen as āConstruction Seasonā.
@raymie you remind me that on the coast of the Peninsula, seasons are also told by fishing.
Our corrollary to Construction Season would be Imperm(eabilizantes) Season, which takes place just before the first big storm of hurricane season when simultaneously everyone remembers their roof sealant needs retreatment and so flocks to social media to share in real time rumors and whispers of which stores still have the needed supplies in stock. (It is a very exciting time on the āredes socialesā.)
Well, summer in Delaware is when most road construction occurs, so itās Deldot season. Iām a huge fan of summer but not Deldot season. Every so often Delaware has one long fall season that starts in November and ends in mid-to-late March with the onset of spring. In other words, we bypass winter. I feel like there should be a name for it. Endless brown season? We seem to be doing that this year. Iām not a fan of snow, so Iām not complaining, but as always, snow or no snow, February is weighing on me now. I just need ephemeral season to kick in with all those tiny woodland flowers peeping out of the ground. There is also American toad mating season when the local state parks will fill with toad song. And then, āschool is outā season, which is a personal favorite for many reasons.
I thought that was just SF year-round, but come
to think of if Iāve also been on the Marin headlands on Christmas Eve in picture-perfect, t-shirt weather.
We have the same in Germany: Altweibersommer = Old-Womens-Summerā¦ that only happens when autumn is nice and sunny and probides ideal balooning conditions for spiders. One will see a lot of threads in the meadows that look like gray hair from old womenā¦ Hence the nameš
I personally do miss spawning season of the grass frogs and blue frogs an common toads in spring. It started the new season for me each year
