The new moon rises on Monday, Sept. 2 over the Labor Day weekend, bringing extra low morning tides just before sunrise. Autumn has a full menu of meteor showers and super moons—three more this year—plus a lunar eclipse.
The deep forest greens are dusty as summer draws to a close, but spikes of color are provided by fiery-orange, slender-leaved South African lilies, Crocosmia sp. These late-blooming transplants cluster along Bear Valley Trail. Native bay and buckeye trees are dropping leaves as their seeds begin to emerge.
Some willow trees may look like they have been chopped up, and a closer look may show strips of bark hanging down. Each year, male deer grow a new set of antlers covered with velvet that they scrape off by rubbing their antlers on tree branches—thus the damage to willows. The velvet protects the antler until it is fully calcified or hardened. The size and shape of antlers make the bucks more attractive to females; they may also help them establish dominance over other bucks, which, in turn, enhances their ability to mate. Following the breeding season, testosterone levels in bucks drop and the antlers are shed. These shed antlers become an important source of nutrition for rodents and others.