Drone bumblebees (many species in the genus Bombus) are spending their nights sleeping on goldenrods and other flowers. Cuckoo bumblebees (subgenus Psithyrus) are socially parasitic—the queen aggressively invades the nests of other bumblebee species, kills the queen, and lays eggs there, exploiting the host workers to feed her and her developing young. They do not collect pollen, make their own nests, or have a worker caste—just males and queens. 

Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) and meadowlarks (genus Sturnella) are migrating already. Stink bugs (Chinavia hilaris)are often found in the garden hiding beneath growing pumpkins. While their noxious secretion is thought to be a defense mechanism, at least one omnivorous mammal eats them anyway. You guessed it: the skunk (Mephitis mephitis). Robins (Turdus migratorius)are regrouping into flocks. These gregarious birds will still be in flocks when they return next spring. In between they are solitary birds. 

The flowers of spotted jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) and pale jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) bloom now, drawing swarms of butterflies, hummingbirds, bumblebees, and honeybees. The tents of fall webworm larvae (Hyphantria cunea) begin to show in apples, cherries, and many roadside trees. Look for bright green monarch butterfly chrysalises (Danaus plexippus) attached to houses, wood piles, or the undersurface of leaves. Last of snowshoe hare young (Lepus americanus) are born. Females may produce up to three litters, beginning in May. Newborn spiders (order Araneae), hanging from strands of gossamer, may ride the winds for two weeks. Of 53,700 species worldwide, over a thousand can be found in New England. 

Swallows have begun to migrate. Look for mixed flocks—tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), barn swallows (Hirundo rustica), and cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)—feeding above rivers or perched on telephone lines. Redbacked salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) eat a wide variety of food, mostly insects (especially ants) and many others. The nodding flowers of the ghostly Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora) have turned upwards and will persist through winter in a blackish, stiffened form. These pure white plants contain no chlorophyll; they are parasitic on various subsoil fungi mycelium in the Russulaceae family, which are in turn symbiotic with or parasitic on certain evergreen tree species.