SPRING DAZZLES US ALL
28 March 2023
The yin and yang of spring has been on full display these last few days. Daffodils open in time for snowflakes to fall on them. Early tree blossoms brighten a morning before dark clouds roll in afternoon to mute all color. Like all transitions, it’s a dynamic time, and although it is not clear at every moment, the movement is decidedly toward spring and all that it promises.
On campus the streams are swollen with the flow of March showers–new edges carved, stream beds rearranged, and old beaver dams breached. The creek that was surveyed by last year’s students has the same name but is different from the one awaiting this year’s crew.
The forest floor is alive with new growth. Sun loving shrubs and herbs are racing to soak up the sun of lengthening days before the trees towering above close the canopy. Mushrooms, triggered by rain and warming temperatures, are sending their reproductive structures to the surface. Delicacies and dangers for four- and two-legged creatures alike.
The greening vegetation provides shelter and sustenance for resident birds who, like the undergrowth of the forest floor, are getting a jump on those who arrive or awake later. Careful observation of their behavior reveals purpose in their frantic flights. Fluttering feathers of a female lesser goldfinch solicit copulations from a nearby male. The trill of a dark-eyed junco proclaims this patch of parking lot his. Song Sparrows spar over boundaries marked by bushes, hedge rows, and building corners.
The skies, when clear of clouds and rain (or hail and snow!), host flocks of both Canada and cackling geese, the former likely residents, the latter wintering here but returning soon to breeding grounds on vast Arctic plains. I look eagerly upward, marveling at the flights of the geese and searching for early arrivals from the south. Who will be first? An unimportant question. I’ll celebrate any of the masters of flight, survivors of challenges unimagined by an Earth-bound mammal.
Spring…Sun and shadow. Color and cloud. Yin and Yang. Our spinning planet, its northern hemisphere once again tilted toward the sun, moves toward spring – water flowing, migration beginning, miracles appearing daily.
with an eye on nature (and wishes for an enjoyable week between quarter),
Wally
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