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July 2015-Virginia Meadow Beauty, Mourning Dove

WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES !
JULY, 2015

 

“Once we start to think about the kind of world we are leaving to future generations we look at things differently; we realize that the world is a gift which we have freely received and must share with others.”

- Pope Francis 

 

ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME – Channeling Saint Francis of Assisi 

Here is the much anticipated letter from Pope Francis on global climate change and our shared environment.http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

 

Pope Francis said he chose to be called Francis because of his admiration for Saint Francis of Assisi, “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation.”  

 

Here is Saint Francis of Assisi's famous Canticle of the Sun in praise of God's creation. Over the centuries it has been interpreted in many ways and it still inspires artists, poets and composers today. One present day example is the hymn by liturgical music composer Larry Haugen. Hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGMIjwf0SVw

 

Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun 

 

Most high, all powerful, all good Lord!
All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing.

To You, alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your name.

Be praised, my Lord, through all Your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and You give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of You, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;
in the heavens You have made them bright, precious and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
and clouds and storms, and all the weather,
through which You give Your creatures sustenance.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Water;
she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom You brighten the night.
He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong.

Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth,
who feeds us and rules us,
and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of You;
through those who endure sickness and trial.

Happy those who endure in peace,
for by You, Most High, they will be crowned.

Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Bodily Death,
from whose embrace no living person can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing Your most holy will.
The second death can do no harm to them.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks,
and serve Him with great humility.

BIORESERVE FLORA OF THE MONTH – Virginia Meadow Beauty (Rhexia virginica)

 

The Virginia meadow beauty is an attractive Bioreserve wildflower. It grows in the acidic sandy-gravelly soils of wet meadows and swales, edges of marshes and swamps and along the edges of roads that border wetlands. 

 

The meadow beauty is a perennial wildflower with a light green stem that bears four thin lengthwise ridges. In full sun and with adequate soil moisture the plant may reach three feet in height. The darker green leaves grow opposite each other along the stem and are three inches long and slightly wider than one inch. 

 

Meadow beauty flowers are an inch to an inch and a half wide consisting of four wide petals that range in color from light pink to rose-pink to light blue and deep reddish-purple.

 

In the center of the flower are eight stamens with very long yellow to yellow-orange anthers. The flowers are pollinated principally by bees employing “buzz pollination.” Buzz pollination consists of the bee clinging to an anther while vibrating certain muscles to force out pollen. The pollen is then transferred to the female stigma. After fertilization the flowers fall and a capsule forms within the reddish-purple, vase shaped calyx. When mature the capsule ruptures releasing dozens of tiny seeds.

 

Watch for meadow beauty flowering in our area from mid to late summer. 

 

BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

“Coo-OO-woo” drifts on the spring breeze through the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve and other area woodlands and many urban folks who may be out walking a trail for the first time mistake the call of the mourning dove for that of an owl.

 

The mourning dove received its name from to its sad and “mournful” coo-OO-wooing call. It is a slimmer member of the Columbidae family whose most well known member is the city pigeon, aka rock dove. And, like the city pigeon, the mourning dove male courts its mate with soft cooing and strutting about with puffed out breast and bobbing head.

 

The mourning dove is found throughout North America and is one of our most abundant birds. They are gray, tan and white. Males and females are colored similarly except that males have a patch of iridescent purplish to pink tones on the sides of the head and neck when viewed in the correct light and up close. Both sexes have long tails with white outer feathers. Their short legs and feet are pinkish. 

 

These doves are a foot long and weigh 4 to 6 ounces. Designed aerodynamically, mourning doves are fast fliers capable of zipping along at 60 miles per hour. Their wings often make a whistling noise when taking off and landing. 

 

Mourning doves are generally monogamous staying together throughout the year. Both work at building their nest, preferably in a spruce, pine or other evergreen tree. Males bring twigs and pine needles to the female and she loosely weaves them into a flimsy nest. Two white eggs soon appear and hatch in fourteen days.

 

During the warmer months one pair, here in New England, may raise 3 to 4 broods. Each brood consists of two squabs (chicks). Both parents incubate the eggs and care for the young. Newly hatched squabs are fed “pigeon milk” from pre-digested food and secretions from a parent's crop until they are about a week old and can eat seeds.

 

Mourning doves eat mostly seeds and herbaceous plant material. In summer they also eat insects. In the winter they often feed under backyard bird feeders cleaning up seed spilled on the ground by songbirds feeding above.

 

In our neck of the woods mourning doves may stay around all winter long or they may migrate south. Those that remain in New England throughout the winter often frequent seashore areas where they forage the beach, dune edges and thickets for seeds. Others stick close to food sources searching for spilled grain at cattle and horse farms or haunt suburban and urban bird feeders.

 

Those that migrate begin to leave in early September with young of the years leaving first. The migrate in family groups. Doves that migrate south for the winter return in late winter and early spring. 

 

Doves have many predators. The most serious are the falcons and accipitrine hawks. Fish crows, common crows and ravens will take eggs and nestlings. Black racer snakes will do the same thing.

 

Mourning doves are a highly sought after and delicious game bird hunted mostly in our southern and western states. Between 20 to 50 million are taken by hunters annually. They are such prolific breeders that they quickly make up for these loses and the end of the following summer finds the continental population numbers back at 300 to 500 million. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as a “Species of Least Concern.”

 

Most give little thought to that small gray and brown bird that cleans up the loose seed under the bird feeder. Some view the morning dove as quite a remarkable bird and we are always pleased to see them foraging along the edge of a woods road when we are hiking Bioreserve trails.

 

 

JULY – Summertime

Is the livin' easy? We hope so. 

 

July in New England is summer at its best. This is an ideal time to explore your natural environment by foot and/or bicycle. For other summer active things to do click on our Calendar here. 

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