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Phenological Engagement: When the Chokecherries Ripen (Pakkipistsi Otsitsi’tsspi)
During Pakkipistsi Otsitsi’tsspi, When the Chokecherries Ripen, you return with me to Forest Heights Park as chokecherry clusters darken, birds and insects focus on the fruit, and late summer light begins to soften across the river valley.
Nathan Binnema
Greetings all!
We are now entering the lunar cycle known as Pakkipistsi Otsitsi’tsspi, “When the Chokecherries Ripen,” in the Blackfoot lunar calendar. This is the fourth of five summer lunar cycles. Based on my past three summers of observation at Forest Heights Park, here’s some of what I expect to happen this lunar cycle:
Chokecherries, of course, are ripe throughout the lunar cycle and prolific in the river valley. High bush cranberries ripen early in the lunar cycle as well, and later on snowberries, wolf willow berries, and buckbrush berries. Mosquito and bee populations decline, and crickets cease to buzz.
Lady beetle larvae appear, and dogbane beetles mate; gnat swarms become a more common sight.
Ravens return and some species of migratory warbler pass through.
Leaves turn colour.
Funnel webs become numerous in the grass, and orb webs in the gaps in the fence on the Dawson Bridge.
I have seen various piles of plant material collected by someone or other in previous years this lunar cycle, and hanging clusters of leaves that are created by some kind of insect, perhaps to hibernate in.