It would be very hard not to have noticed Spring racing in all around us over these past two weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures. Though we often have late March days that warm up close or into the 80’s, for us to have so many days in a row with those temperatures (record highs were being set repeatedly throughout the northeast and northern mid-west) is something quite historic!
So what signs are we seeing in all of this “March-Summer?”
The hillsides took on a reddish haze as the very abundant red maples opened their flower buds (the red maples in my yard flowered on March 15, just like last year). This is the time of year to really appreciate how this once very uncommon tree of the northeastern primal forests has now become one of the most numerically abundant in our present day, human-modified forests. The red maple flowers, though, are quickly fading and falling and are rapidly being replaced by opening leaf buds.
In the woodlands along the roads you see a growing glow of green in the understory vegetation and in the edges of the wooded “ecotones.” Much of this green is being generated by the early leafing out of multiflora rose, a very abundant and invasive alien species that is doing a great deal of harm to native plant species in our forest and field ecosystems. Again, this is the time of the year to observe the extensive distribution of this plant and to reflect on the havoc humans have wrought on the ecosystems around us.
The willows along the Kiski River have been leafing out and greening up for a couple of weeks now. The raspberry canes on the edges of my field have just begun to pop out their leaves, and the slippery elms at the bottom of my field are doing the same. Green is becoming a richer component of our surroundings! (now if we can just keep the grass from growing a little while longer!)
But, it is yellow that is the true color of Spring. The daffodils and the forsythias are positively glowing around the yards and fields and down in the hollows. The colt’s foot have been blooming for several weeks along the roadsides, and dandelions have even opened up on the edges of my yard.
Waiting for the spring warblers and other tropical migrants to return!
More to come!