I was on campus Wednesday and ran into Nick Petrucci out on the walk between the Conference Center and the Gym. He wanted to know if I had seen any signs of spring. Here goes:
My box turtle has awakened from his winter torpor. He’s eaten four strawberries, three hunks of banana, and eight nightcrawlers in the past week.
I have seen robins almost all winter, but over the past week I have seen them nearly every day. In fact, one is sitting on the fence outside my window right now. Like my turtle, the robins are feasting on the awakening earthworms in the thawing ground especially under piles of last year’s leaves.
Male titmice, chickadees, and cardinals are singing almost all day now to mark their territories and attract females. Male skunks have been stumbling by at night also looking for mates. They dig holes in the piles of sun flower seed shells under my bird feeders looking for uneaten seeds.
There was the first common grackle of the season at my bird feeder this morning. He was gorging on the shelled corn I put out for the jays and squirrels and was aggressively keeping everyone away from the pile. Grackles are for some people “trash birds.” They are loud and aggressive and have few social or aesthetic assets. During our last gypsy moth outbreak, though, (early 1990’s…and we are due for another one any year now!), I sat out on my porch and watched common grackles gather the hairy, gypsy moth caterpillars from my spruce trees and carry them to the asphalt street where they wiped them across the rough surface until the noxious hairs were removed. They then gobbled down the caterpillars and went back for more. Any bird that smart, any bird that will adapt to eat those awful pests, deserves both kind attention and recognition.
Deborah and I went walking out on the Rock Furnace Trail yesterday afternoon. There is still a great deal of ice on the paths, so going up and down slope was difficult in places. There is no sign yet of any wildflowers even in the sheltered spots that open to the southern sky. The soil in those spots, though, is warm. We should be seeing colt’s foot flowers very soon. Last year’s ferns and the overwintering mosses were incredibly green against the patches of snow.
My red maples have fat flower buds that will open in the next warm spell. My forsythia is also getting “lumpy.” The shoots of the crocuses and daffodils and tulips next to my house are up and waiting for real spring to come.
It’s almost time! Just ignore the snow tomorrow.