In this week's episode, notes from Bill Felker's 40 years of observing what happens in nature.
Bill Felker: This is the week along the 40th parallel that the day's length becomes a full hour longer than it was on December 26th.
And the brighter afternoons tell groundhogs and possums that it's mating time. Raccoons and beavers seek partners too.
Even though weather history says these could be some of the coldest days of winter, crocus, daffodil, and tulip foliage often emerges. Garlic planted in November has pushed up out of the ground.
Cloves set in early October are already several inches high. More than half of the Pussy willows have opened. All across the country, people are getting ready to tap maples for sap.
Cardinals begin consistent mating calls in the last week of deep winter. And now they are in full song by seven in the morning, and they sometimes sing all day. Sparrows compete for mates and nesting sites, chattering and chirping in the honeysuckle. Starlings are pairing up, and red-winged blackbirds cross the Ohio River to establish their territories in fields and wetlands of the north.
The wind is still raw. The grass and the trees are brown. But the balance is tipping away from winter. The thaws are preserved, their effects impervious to the steady progression of cold fronts, promising that next week will be the first week of early spring.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will's Almanack. I'll be back again next week with notes for the first week of early spring. In the meantime, watch for signs of spring because the signs are always what they signify.
Bill Felker contributes to newspapers nationwide, including the "Yellow Springs News." Bill resides in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Poor Will's Almanack is brought to you by Tree Care Inc., offering services in arboriculture throughout the region. Trees make life better.
