Two Moons Tonight

August month of change, sweet serenity

For the AJC

With mid-August upon us, it’s time to savor the last few weeks of summer, a glorious time in Georgia.

Someone once told me that if Rip Van Winkle had awakened from his 20-year slumber in August, he surely would have known what month it was because August has a look, a feel and a sound of its own. "A kind of sweet serenity now possesses the land," the late Hal Borland said of August in his book Twelve Moons of the Year .

Nearly two months past the summer solstice, the light is noticeably changing as the days grow shorter and the nights longer. Shadows lie a little differently than they did a month ago. Hay and grain fields have turned from green to a tawny brown. Many are already harvested.

In the mid-afternoon heat, cicadas, field crickets and grasshoppers serenade us with their monotonous “insect music.” Bird songs have quieted down as the feathered creatures’ wrap up their nesting seasons and many prepare to head south for the winter.

A great ripeness is spreading over the land as nature prepares a sumptuous bounty of seeds, nuts, acorns, fruits, berries and other wild food to help multitudes of insects, birds, animals and others make it through the winter to another spring.

For some creatures, late summer is a time of rebirth. In South Georgia’s swamps and wetlands, baby alligators are hatching out and may be heard "clucking" to their mothers. The young of many of Georgia’s 44 snake species -- including corn snake, Eastern racer, indigo snake (endangered), rat snake, hognose snake, plain-bellied water snake, copperhead, coral snake -- also are hatching out or being born alive now, depending on the species.

Hatching out, too, are baby pond slider turtles, eastern mud turtles and, in the sand hills, gopher tortoises.

Beginning to bloom are the gorgeous wildflowers of late summer and fall -- goldrenrods, asters, gentians, iron weed, Joe-pye weed, lobelia, Queen Anne’s lace, blazing star, hairy false foxglove, virgin’s bower and others. Some fall blooming orchids, including crane fly orchid and rattlesnake plantain, are popping up.

Nighthawks frequent the evening sky, scooping up insects on the wing. Orchard orioles and Louisiana water thrushes are headed south and will be mostly gone  from Georgia by the end of this month. Also heading out are yellow warblers and male ruby-throated hummingbirds. The hummers are flocking now to feeders and wild blooms to fatten up for their arduous journey to winter homes in Mexico and Central America.

2 full moons appear in Busby, Australia? « I am a Malaysian

BUSBY – Residents of this small Australian town were shocked to see two full moons in sky!

Tonight, there’s a full moon in Busby, Australia. Many residents were admiring it when at 1:20 a.m., local time, a second moon rose in the night sky. Residents couldn’t believe what they were seeing!

Astronomers across the world were alerted to this sighting and have confirmed the existence of a second earth moon. “We have never seen anything like this before,” said researcher Rich Montano at the University of California, Los Angeles. “There had been some rumors that a second moon was seen over Hong Son, Thailand in 1967, but it was only seen for a few hours and only in that one location, but now everyone across Australia can see the second moon. It’s awe-inspiring.”

Residents of Los Angeles, and the rest of the world, will be able to see the second moon with the naked eye as night falls. Busby residents are out in the streets staring up in wonder at the second moon. “It’s exciting, but also frightening,” said Carol McNulty of Busby. “It’s so beautiful, but what does it mean? Why did the second moon appear tonight? Why?”

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