March 2022 Blog Watch for Your Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring

Which ones have you seen lately? 

My first harbingers of spring are usually the birds. On February 12, I saw and heard my first red-wing blackbirds. These songbirds are so apparent with their call (“come-for-tea”) and bright red wings. They usually arrive in a flock so it’s hard to miss them. 

The most important factor in noticing them is to be out in nature. Got a bird feeder? They’ll arrive there. Live near water? Blackbirds or other newly-arriving flocks can be found in a tree overlooking a stream, river, or lake. 

Call to them. Repeat their song and they’ll respond to you. I love doing this as I walk past a tree that they’re sitting in. I feel as though we’re friends. 

Another sign I noticed is magpies with twigs or grasses in their beaks. I don’t see where they’re landing and yet I know there will be squawking in a few months from babies demanding (in no uncertain terms) food. 

We had a nest in my next-door neighbor’s tree two years ago and I had to wear earplugs if I wanted to sleep past five am. I am an early bird(!) and love to rise early and get the worm, so to speak, so I try not to fight it and work on getting to bed earlier so an early wake-up call is welcome. 

And I remember enjoying the silence of the winter. It’s ephemeral.

We have a small stream that runs behind our house. It’s a waterway for hundreds of songbirds, redpolls, chickadees, sparrows, flickers, doves, pigeons, LBBs (little brown birds), birds of prey, waterfowl, corvids (magpies, crows, ravens), and game birds (Hungarian partridges are our favorites). My husband Wells loves to photograph them at our feeder. 

Another way to mark the beginning of spring is to watch the lengthening of the day and feel the strengthening of the sun. I love to watch the snow melting around the base of trees, knowing that the roots are soaking up the melting snow. It won’t be long before the sap is flowing. Xylem carries mostly water and some nutrients from the roots to the leaves, and then nutrient-rich phloem supplies the stems and roots with needed sugars and hormones. 

Maple sugar season is just beginning in New England, always an anticipated event in the sugarbushes in northern climes. Remember that 40:1 ratio of sap to syrup when using maple syrup as a sweetener in your next batch of Leftover Oatmeal Muffins.

Use all of your senses. Notice the scent of the earth as the sun warms the newly thawed (in our area) earth. 

Listen to the rush of water as snow melts into rivers and streams. 

The earth is slowly making her inexorable way around the sun. Settle in with those books you put away for the cold, winter nights. The hours of darkness are getting shorter and shorter. 

Are you feeling a little cabin fever? That’s a sign that our cold season metamorphosis is almost finished and we’re ready to burst out into the warmer and longer days.

Notice as we step through the last of winter, celebrate spring equinox on the 21st, and then bounce into spring.

What’s new in your neighborhood? 

Upcoming…

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End-of-winter love, 

Kathy