Spring is Coming

     To me, spring arrives in southeastern Pennsylvania around the middle of February, biologically speaking.  Then certain small hardy flowers, including snow drops and winter aconites bloom,  waterfowl and blackbirds start their migrations north to their nesting grounds and local, permanent resident male birds begin singing to establish breeding territories and attract mates.  The birds see the lengthening amounts of daylight each succeeding day in January, which stirs their hormones and makes them want to reproduce.  This year, 2016, I kept a diary of natural happenings that indicate that spring is coming to southeastern Pennsylvania.
     On February third, I heard a male Carolina wren singing and male mourning doves cooing in our suburban neighborhood.  The wren survived the near-record snow storm we had here just a couple of weeks ago, partly because it sheltered and probably found invertebrates under a neighbors' porch.  This wren also ate sunflower seeds from the neighbors' bird feeder.
     Mourning doves are always one of the first resident birds to sing, usually in the beginning of February.  I am always happy to hear the first doves cooing.
     Later that day I drove through Lancaster County farmland to see what creatures were stirring.  Among other wintering, cropland birds, I saw a lone pair of mallards investigating a slow section of stream.  It looked like they were searching for a nesting spot, a sure sign of the coming spring.  Later, I saw a pair of American kestrels perched close together on a roadside wire, another sign of spring's coming.  I know the kestrels were male and female because of differences in size and plumage coloration.  There were a few large trees with hollows in them near where I saw the kestrels.    
     On February four, I saw about 50 migrant snow geese with around 160 resident Canada geese and a score of mallard ducks in a partly-flooded winter rye field and a harvested corn field in a broad, farmland valley about a mile south of New Holland, Lancaster County.  The snow geese had not been there all winter, leading me to believe their sudden presence was a symbol of the coming vernal season.  The geese and ducks were feeding peacefully until an adult bald eagle flew over them.  Then the geese and ducks took flight in panic.  The Canadas and mallards soon landed again on the same fields, but the cautious snows circled the fields several times before finally landing among the Canadas.
     Every square inch of that valley is devoted to human activities.  Yet, at times, during every February and March, migrating snow geese and tundra swans land in that valley for a few days to eat waste corn kernels and the green shoots of winter rye.
     On February eight, I was driving through Lancaster County cropland and saw a few pairs of red-tailed hawks perched together in trees here and there.  And I saw a pair of black vultures investigating crevices in a rocky wall of an abandoned quarry for a nesting site.  I took those pairs of birds as symbols of the coming spring.
     Five thousand snow geese were reported to be on the main lake at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area on February ninth.  They didn't stay long because the lake was mostly frozen, but their sudden presence after a winter of absence indicated another sign of the coming vernal season.
     On February 14 I noticed more mourning doves locally than I had all winter.  Apparently some doves move out of this area in fall, but come back when the daylight per day gets longer.  Now male northern cardinals are singing.  I also saw some patches of snow drops and winter aconites blooming on lawns and flower beds.  The bald eagles that have a nest outside Hanover, Pennsylvania, and we can see on computers, are now sitting on their nest in preparation of laying eggs.  Other pairs of local bald eagles are already setting on eggs.  And there is a bit of light in the western sky until about 6:30 P M.  Now is the time to start looking for the courtship flights of male American woodcocks in clearings near bottomland woods just after sunset.
     On February 15, we had light snow in the afternoon, freezing rain overnight and rain on the 16th with temperatures up to 43 degrees.  On the 15th I saw several each of black ducks and common merganser ducks on a stretch of Mill Creek where they had not been all winter, indicating to me they are restless and on the move.  And some of the Amish farmers have one gallon plastic jugs on spiles drilled under the bark of maple trees to catch leaking sap they will boil down to pure maple syrup.
When naturalist-writer John Burroughs wrote about his maple sugaring experiences in the Hudson Valley of New York State he wrote "Next week or the next we will plow and do other sober work on the farm, but this week we will picnic among the maples and our camp fires shall be an incense to spring".
     Starting on February 16th, temperatures will warm for several days into next week.  With increased daylight each succeeding day and warmer temperatures, spring will start to burst forth in this area, in spite of what the human calendar says.  To me, on the 16th, spring is here!