March had pushed itself into late February. The little snow that had fallen was dry and
powdery so what was still on the ground had seemed to evaporate more than melt
during a week of springish days and mild nights. The lake ice was puddled and growing thin
around the edges. What geese had stayed
the winter were beginning to fly out to farm fields in search of waste grain.
Then in a hard turn, winter returned and covered
everything with six inches of heavy wet snow.
The morning after I stepped outside to clear the driveway and was
greeted by the trumpeting call of sandhill cranes. I was surprised. But my wife Michelle confirmed that she had
seen three sandhill cranes gathered at the edge of the conservancy pond just to
the west of our house as she drove past them.
I wouldn’t have been surprised; in fact, I was
expecting to hear cranes any day when for the past two weeks winter seemed to
be on retreat. But now, with the
overnight storm, I suspected that they would stay several hundred miles to the
south until conditions were more favorable.
The fact that they were calling in the early morning attested that they
had likely flown through the tail end of the snow during the night.
You have to wonder what would have driven them to
fight through the snow to arrive at a still-frozen-over pond, and a wetland
area and surrounding farm fields freshly covered with snow. All their food sources were cut off. To make matters worse, just a few days later
another heavier snowfall swept across the state: no doubt pushing back spring’s
arrival, and making the crane’s situation somewhat precarious. Surely they would have had good fat reserves
before heading north, but they would have exhausted much of those in the long
migration flight.
Yes, nature is resilient. It is also true that winter can be harsh and
bleak for wildlife that battles through it for survival. But those animals all have some adaptation
that makes staying alive in winter a decent wager, although it is even for them
extended meagerness. It is in these transition
times that lure these early arrivals only to then silence the dripping promise
of melting snow and ice with north/northwest winds from the arctic that are the
real threat to survival.
We may grumble at the forecast and complain of lagging
winter as we look out the window, but we should also say a prayer for life that
is held precarious in the swaying balance of winter and spring, for God looked
at all that he created and pronounced it good.
His Peace,
Deacon Dan
Photo by Lillian Grace on Unsplash
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