The old adage about March — “In like a lion and out like a lamb” — wasn’t looking as if it would hold up this year. Many students and friends have commented to me that they have enjoyed the warm winter so far, but hope we do not pay for it in March and April. March is a transition month, thus the adage of lion to lamb.
March 21 is the vernal (Spring) equinox, the astronomical start to spring, the day everywhere on Earth has 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. Our days will get longer until June 21, and the sun is stronger. March 21 sun has the same intensity as Sept. 21 (the Autumnal equinox), which means any snow we do get in March will have a tough time staying around for long.
Changes we typically see in March are lawns beginning to green, tree buds swelling and some early flowering, and often the “awakening” of amphibians (frogs, including spring peepers, toads and salamanders). They leave their winter hideouts, buried in leaf litter in the woods, and move into the open water, where they bring their evening chorus that signifies spring.
This winter January and February were not the typical cold and snowy months many of us recall from years past. Many ponds and lakes barely, if ever, were ice-covered this year. Canada geese and ducks have been returning to the local ponds and acting as if it were April or May. Our neighbor had made a gallon of maple syrup by President’s Day, and typically that isn’t happening until St. Patrick’s Day.
The red-winged blackbirds showed up in the yard this year, perhaps a little early. Typically it is during February school vacation; this year they were here for Valentine’s Day. Currently they are visiting the bird feeder, as the swamps they nest in froze up a bit with the recent cold snap and snow.
We had a visit on several days recently by a flock of 40 or so wild turkeys. Apparently they like sunflower the same way chickadees and blue jays do, and with the crusty snow-ice they came for a snack. They also helped themselves to some holly berries and seeds from last year’s goldenrod and even some hemlock cones they could reach.
March is a great time to prune any fruit trees or shrubs in the yard. Apples, blueberries, crab apples and the like can benefit from a little trimming now before they start sending sap to those branches. We will be doing that to some of the high bush blueberries we have here in the yard.
We might make up for the lack of snow this month. There has been some documented shift in seasons, with summer and fall lasting later and winter not really beginning until later, but the warming sun will win out. Clocks jumped ahead the weekend of the 11th, when sunsets were at 7 p.m. once again. We also will be changing them back in the fall, as usual. Last year the U.S. Senate had started the process, by passing a bill, to end the changing of the clocks for Daylight Saving Time across the country, but it was not passed through the House, and we will keep up the practice. I personally enjoy more light in the late afternoon and evening and enjoy this time of year.
Featured Flora and Fauna
Red-breasted nuthatch — Many of us who feed the birds in the winter have had a pleasant surprise this winter coming to our feeders: red-breasted nuthatches. Their cousin, the white-breasted nuthatch, is a regular feeder species throughout the area, along with black-capped chickadees, blue jays, tufted titmouse and cardinals, but red-breasted nuthatches are not everyday, or every year for that matter, “regulars.”
Because they are not among the “usual suspects,” they are exciting and arguably cute, handsome or pretty, and offer a great chance to spotlight biodiversity. They are similar to their cousins in that they both forage for insects and other food bits by going headfirst down tree trunks, looking in the rough edges of the bark for food morsels. They are omnivores, eating insects, seeds, nuts and little fruit bits.
They are cavity nesters, meaning they find a hole in a tree, often where a branch has broken off or in a dead or dying tree, often where woodpeckers have been active. They may be very busy back and forth to the feeder, taking seeds and storing them in a nearby tree. They are sometimes mistaken for woodpeckers, although woodpeckers work their way up the tree trunk, not down.
Why does nature need two species of nuthatches? The truth is nature doesn’t, but things in nature exploit opportunities, and the nuthatch cousins exploit slightly different opportunities. White-breasted nuthatches are generalists, using deciduous and coniferous trees, and are quite comfortable near human habitations. Red-breasted nuthatches are smaller and prefer conifers (trees with cones, such as pines, spruces and firs) and are often found farther north into Maine and south central Canada in the “boreal” pine forests, also known as the taiga. When nest building, they will take pine resin and line the entrance to the nest hole to keep out predators. In winters such as this one, when many have likely come south and are visiting local feeders, enjoy them as it is not an every-year occurrence.
What to do
If you are looking for outdoor things to do, check out the “Goings On” section. There are local trail walks throughout the region and informational get togethers at local libraries and public venues. On the first “warm” rainy night in mid- to late March, go out after dark along unpopulated streets and look for migrating spring peepers, wood frogs or spotted salamanders.
Maple sugaring should continue to go on as long as we have nights below freezing (32 degrees) and days 35 to 40 degrees.
As what little ice formed this winter leaves, the ponds’ great blue herons will return. Ducks and other birds will begin to migrate back, although the big bird migration is late April into May. Fishing in local ponds should start to get going as the water warms a little. Pickerel and bass will be hungry. Perhaps trout stocking will be early this year, as snow and ice runoff will be moderate in rivers, and streams and lakes and ponds will be accessible. Keep an eye out on the Mass.gov trout stocking website for up to date information.
One thing I often see as the ice thins are otters on local ponds, seemingly celebrating the water opening up, though more likely moving to waters where they will spend the warmer months.
