Early Spring

     Cold, ice and snow will strike southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, in February, but the look and feel of spring sometime in that month, depending a lot on the weather and the activities of certain, hardy birds and plants, can not be denied. 
     The first exhilerating, inspiring signs of spring's coming are visible around January 20th in this area.  Then daylight each succeeding day continues to be two minutes more than the day before as the sun "returns" to the northern hemisphere since December 22nd.  Toward the end of January, the sun is a little higher and hotter in the sky and sets a minute later each day, happily making longer periods of daylight each succeeding day.  Born from the chilly womb of winter, spring is coming.
     The sun "coming" north is caused by the Earth's tilting on its axis as it revolves around the sun.  When the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, it is summer in that half of the world.  But when the northern hemisphere is pointed away from the sun, it is winter.
     Longer periods of daylight are registered in birds' brains and the ground is gradually warmed a bit, causing reactions in certain birds and plants by late January.  Thousands of big, hardy snow geese and tundra swans generally are the first birds to become restless and want to migrate north to their breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra.  But ice and snow farther north stop them.  So they push north a little, like to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and wait a few weeks on rivers, lakes and feeding fields for spring to catch up to their restless urges.  Mourning doves suddenly appear here in greater numbers than was seen earlier in January.  And the growing purple-streaked, green flower hoods of skunk cabbage in wooded swamps and green shoots of snow drops and winter aconites on lawns and flower beds poke through soil and leaves.  And each succeeding day still has more daylight than the one before.              
     Finally, the first day of spring arrives, according to my views based on the actions of birds and plants; this year (2018) on February 10, which is an average time each year.  By that time patches of snow drops and aconites are blooming, male mourning doves, northern cardinals, tufted titmice and a few other kinds of small, permanent resident birds are singing to establish nesting territories and attract mates, restless snow geese continue to increase their numbers locally, a few people have buckets on maple trees to collect their sap for boiling down to syrup and the daylight per day continues to get still longer. 
     Now, too, mated pairs of Canada geese and mallard ducks are noticeably looking for nesting places along waterways and impoundments.  And most every day at dusk from mid-February, through March and April, male American woodcocks present their elaborate courtship displays on the ground and in the sky above clearings near bottomland woods into the dark of night.  Only hunger or female woodcocks ready to mate interrupt the males' unique and entertaining performances.     
     I was in local woods on February 12th to enjoy the beautifully sunny, warm day.  The sun was "high" in the sky and bright and hot.  It was pleasurable to sit against a large tree, out of the cold wind, and soak up the warm sunlight.  A pair of Carolina chickadees peered at me in the woods and, suddenly, a tremendous flock of purple grackles flew overhead and landed in nearby treetops with much vocal squeaking.  That was the first large gathering of grackles I saw since late last summer, meaning these restless birds were pushing north to find food and be ready to start nesting colonies.        Toward the end of February, all the above plant and bird activities continue, and are joined by the swelling of gray, furry catkins on male pussy willow bushes.  Those catkins stand erect and become larger through the end of February and into March in this area.  Eventually, they turn yellow with pollen that is gathered by a small variety of early-spring insects.  Some of those insects are eaten by a variety of small birds.
     Early spring is an exciting, inspiring time of year to me; one of my favorite times of year.  A surprising number of plant and animal species respond to the early increase in daylight per day and slight rise in average temperatures.  They suddenly appear in southeastern Pennsylvania where they had not been visible all winter, or at least in small numbers in the case of swans and geese.  But one must get out and look for the subtle, inspiring signs of early spring.  They are not always evident until one searches for them.