The Advance

 

The Advance

As it seems to happen most years, three and four weeks ago we were finally getting the biggest snowfalls of the winter.  And today the temperature is near 60 degrees for the second time in the last week.  Almost all of the snow has receded into the marsh brown muddiness that is early spring in these parts.  The seeming last holdout of winter is the ice that continues to cover nearly all of the ponds in the nature conservancy area.  I say “seeming” about the signs of winter because it can all change as quickly as the wind direction; snow and cold can return just like that. 

But there is no snow in the weather forecast and daytime temperatures are supposed to be around 50 degrees.  My brother-in-law Joel used to say that this was maple syrup weather.  Warm days and cool nights get the maple sap running. 

Birds migrating back north are a dependable sign that they at least feel that the worst of winter is over.  Of course they can get caught in a late burst of snow.  That will likely silence the singing for a day or two, but it will resume as soon as the snow begins to melt again.

Birds that migrate, even songbirds, are interesting in that the migrations of autumn are huge.  Ask any weather forecaster and they can show you clouds of songbirds migrating south that are large enough to show on the radar.  Spring always starts anyway with more of a trickle.  I noticed some of that on my walk this morning.

The frozen ponds and surrounding marsh have been silent and still since early December.  Most days, if there was anything moving at all it may perhaps be marsh hawk with his low fluttering flight as he searches for mice and voles, and maybe even an occasional rabbit of hunting is good.  But today there were perhaps 150 or so geese scattered around the edges of the pond.  The ice has pulled back so that there is about 4-5 feet of open water mimicking the shoreline, and the geese are all standing in it like children who cannot resist splashing in a puddle.  Their murmuring honks signal that they are resting and content.  By next week, if the warmth persists, there will be five times that many geese resting here in the daytime hours.

Way back in the far corner, a quarter mile away I can make out four swans doing a bad job of trying to blend in with the geese.  Their brilliant white plumage and their size – half again as large as the geese, makes them stand out even at this distance.  Like the geese, there ranks will grow significantly in the next two weeks as they will rest and feed here for that brief period while they wait for spring to take hold nearer the Arctic Circle where they spend their summer.  It will be common in the next week or two to drive around in the evening and find fields with thousands of swans.

I hear but don’t see two sandhill cranes.  One of calling from the marsh on the far side of the pond, and the other must be feeding in a field a half mile to the west.  Their calls volley back and forth.  Suddenly three more cranes materialize in the blue sky and begin dropping down into the marsh.  These too are the very first of thousands.

What inspires these few to strike north at the first signs of what can be a very undependable spring season?  Why don’t they wait to join the huge flocks that will soon be on the way?  Are they young and unaware of the risk of a too-early arrival?  Or, are these the older and wiser birds that know that a successful hatch can depend on getting the prime nesting area of the marsh?  At least these birds today weren’t saying.

His Peace <><

Deacon Dan       

  Photo by Charles Jackson on Unsplash