The seasons, like greater tides, ebb and flow across the continents. Spring advances up the United States at the average rate of about fifteen miles a day. It ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day. It sweeps ahead like a flood of water, racing down the long valleys, creeping up hillsides in a rising tide. – Edwin Way Teale

The Moon: The Tulip Moon wanes until it becomes the Strawberry Moon on May 19 at 11:55 a.m. Rising near dawn and setting in the evening, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the day.

The Sun: By May 21, the sun reaches about 90 percent of the way to summer solstice. The period between that date and the first week of July is the most stable solar time of summer.

The Planets: Find Jupiter traveling with Libra in the southwest after dark. Saturn in Sagittarius is visible in the early morning sky until the end of June.

The Stars: At midnight, walk under the Summer Triangle, easily identified by its most prominent star-group, Cygnus. Shaped like a cross or a swan in flight, this constellation foretells Middle Summer and the Dog Day heat of July.

The Shooting Stars: The Eta Aquarids are still active through May 28. Look for them in the east before dawn.

Weather Trends: Average highs climb into the upper 70s this week, and normal lows reach the middle 50s. Chances of an afternoon below 70 decrease as the Sun reaches its Early Summer position in Gemini. A day in the 80s takes place eight years in 10, while frost wilts your uncovered tomatoes only 10 or 15 times in a century. The days surrounding the May 20 cool front are some of the most turbulent of May, often marked by rain, tornadoes and high winds. The May 20 system also brings the threat of frost to the northern tier of states, but it typically spares tomatoes and eggplant in the Lower Midwest.

The Natural Calendar: Clover season spreads throughout the country this month. Relatives of alfalfa, the small black medic, purple vetch, and the weedy yellow and white sweet clovers take over the roadsides as well as the pastures in all but the northernmost states.

The third and final major wave of migrating songbirds reaches the Great Lakes in the last days of May, dominated by American redstarts, indigo buntings, the vireos and flycatchers. By the middle of June, virtually all migrations are complete, and nesting has begun.

After locust trees are done flowering, then snow-on-the-mountain blossoms and sweet Williams, clematis and spiderwort open. White-spotted skippers and red admiral butterflies visit the garden.

In the Field and Garden: When the clovers bloom, flea season begins for dogs, cats, goats and sheep. It’s time for Canadian and nodding thistles to flower, too. Flea beetles and leafhoppers start bothering the garden during clover season, and slugs reach their early peak, Flies bother the cattle, and ticks roam the brambles.

Be sure all building ventilation systems are in good order. Water and salt should be readily available wherever your livestock is located. Potatoes, commercial tomatoes and pickles have all been set out by the end of the month along the Great Lakes.

Mind and Body: Under the dark moon, seed metabolism is higher in plants, and sprouting has been shown to improve. Human metabolism may rise, as well. Bleeding is often heavier under the new moon, so be extra careful castrating new kids and lambs. And lunar lore and at least one study suggest that more females than males are born under the new moon.

Countdown to Summer 

• One week until roses flower

• Two weeks until the first mulberries are sweet for picking and cottonwood cotton drifts in the wind

• Three weeks until wild black raspberries ripen

• Four weeks until fledgling robins peep in the bushes and fireflies mate in the night

• Five weeks until cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

• Six weeks until thistles turn to down

• Seven weeks until sycamore bark starts to fall, marking the center of Deep Summer

• Eight weeks to the season of singing crickets and katydids after dark

• Nine weeks until ragweed pollen floats in the wind

• 10 weeks until blackberries are ready for wine and jam

Almanack Classics

What Are the Chances of This Happening?

By Lois Newman, Seaman, Ohio

Last summer, my son, a farmer, was starting toward his house at lunchtime when he was startled to see a huge bird on the walk between himself and the kitchen door. He immediately thought of stories he had heard of ostriches that could deliver swift and dangerous kicks when encountered.

Retreating into the barn, my son used his cell phone to call his wife to look outside. By the time she got there, the bird had moved farther away, and together they decided it was an emu.

When the children heard of it, they called their neighbor fiends to come see the exciting new bird that was, by that time, mingling with the cattle in the pasture.

At evening chore time, the family was at the barn when something swished past their heads and lit on rafter. It didn’t seem to be the usual sparrow or pigeon they often saw. And it just sat there and looked at them. The boys climbed up and found a parakeet that had obviously been a pet, for it allowed them to catch it and put it into a cage.

The next day, the rural mail carrier who had seen the emu on my son’s farm called to tell them their bird was a few miles east, and he thought they might be looking for it. A few days later there was an emu reported north of the farm. We never learned whose it was or if it found its way home.

The parakeet, however, delighted the children. They brought it to my house to show their grandpa and me. They took it to a youth function at church to show the children. One day, my son’s former college roommate and his wife visited. The wife fell in love with the little bird, and since the children were becoming tired of caring for it, she took it home with her. It now lives in luxury near Zanesville, Ohio.

What are chances of two exotic birds finding their way to the same farm on the same day?

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S 

SCKRAMBLER

NEGARELISMISO GENERALISSIMO

SUMCATOIH    MUSTACHIO

TONIRAO    ONTARIO

SIPCATOIH    PISTACHIO

NGAMIFCOI    MAGNIFICO

VLCNOAO    VOLCANO

EORVI    VIREO

REVGITO    VERTIGO

AAIOGD    ADAGIO

OOEMR    ROMEO

OOIH    OHIO

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

OOUUHGDRS

OAOVTC

FUFBAOL

UAOBNGLW

OCILCA

AEORGLL

AAEUBTL

PITOET

ROOT

UEAUOSTSR

INARWOB

In order to estimate your SCKRAMBLER IQ, award yourself 15 points for each word unscrambled, adding a 50-point bonus for getting all of them correct. If you find a typo, add another 15 points to your IQ. Yes, you are a genius.

Follow the summer with Bill Felker’s A Daybook for May in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and A Daybook for June in Yellow Springs, Ohio. These daybooks contain all the nature notes used to create Poor Will’s Almanack. Order yours from Amazon, or, for an autographed copy, order from www.poorwillsalmanack.com. You can also purchase Bill Felker’s new book of essays, The Virgin Point, from those sites.

Copyright 2023 – W. L. Felker