Woolly Bear Watch 2008

In about two hours, autumn will return to earth's northern hemisphere. Here in the US Pacific Northwest, the dwindling sunlight spells Prozac for many people as Seasonal Affective Disorder rears its ugly head once more.


Rather than toying with my brain's delicate chemistry, I choose to hole myself up at a local coffee shop with my laptop and ride things out. The ride can easily last six or seven excruciating months, with a sunny day or two occasionally thrown in to break up the monotony.


At about the time once-green leaves turn to gold and then to red before littering the grounds with their own corpses, another head rears itself, this one belonging to the banded woolly bear caterpillar, the larval stage of the Isabella tiger moth.

I've never found moths to be of any particular interest, but this one, at least in its larval form , takes the proverbial cake. Legend has it that the relative size of the orange band will herald the severity -- or mildness -- of the upcoming winter. Although I have been woolly bear watching for a number of years now, I have yet to make any such correlation. Still, the critters are fun to see, and cuter than a -- well, than a moth.


Thus far this year, I have come across only two isolated caterpillars of unknown species, neither of which are the genuine woolly bear. In some ways, Mr. Bear's appearance is akin to that of the ground hog and all the attendant hoopla surrounding dubious prognostications regarding the remaining days of winter. Mr. Bear, who toils under the anonymity of having no official counterpart to Ground Hog Day, allegedly (in the minds of many) makes his yearly forecasts nonetheless.


With the use of high-speed computational monstrosities, the National Weather Service is calling for a nearly normal winter in every respect -- with slight possibilities of warmer-than-average temperatures, as well as a scant likelihood of less-than-average rainfall. Their ninety-day forecasts are currently running as committal as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.


We will have to wait for Woolly Bear Day to concur -- or rebut -- what the weather service has had to say on the matter. Until then, drink lots of coffee, bundle up, and throw an extra log on the fire.


Welcome to autumn.