So what month is this . . . ?
Don't believe the calendar
Confused?
Me, too!
As are the birds and flowers and trees and weather.
After maybe (?) two weeks of real winter in January, we’ve mostly felt like spring.
A big tom turkey, puffed out in full strut, along with a smaller rival, posed for my trail camera on February 12. Kinda early – although my journal includes a 2002 entry that turkeys were gobbling on February 17. Love-struck gobblers apparently pay more attention to their hormones than to the calendar or weather.
Little flecks of green are emerging even in the shady woods. Gooseberry leaves are starting to unfurl, a month earlier than normal. Our garden rhubarb is sending up shoots, making my mouth water for rhubarb crisp – which we usually don’t have until late April
In the flower bed, daffodils already have poked up nearly six inches, with a few buds starting to form. With an afternoon gentle rain shower (only 4/10 of an inch – but we’ll take anything we can get!) plus the forecast of above average temperatures in the next few days, we’ll be watching for blossoms.
Canada geese have paired up on the wetlands for a couple of weeks. But are they still pondering whether it’s too early to lay eggs?
Bluebirds hung around most of the so-called winter – and I’ve cleaned the deer mouse nests out of their houses. A sunny morning has the gentle birds all atwitter – but they also may be hesitant to start their 2024 families this soon.
Bald eagles aren’t so cautious, though. Right on schedule, many birds already are sitting on eggs in nests all over Iowa. You can spy on them here via eagle cameras hosted by the Raptor Resource Project, https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/
Pushed by blustery south winds and record-high 75-degrees temperatures, 2 turkey vultures soared over our house on March 3 – another record-early arrival.
Among our dozens of goldfinches, a few males sport subtle patches of summer-yellow on their shoulder, head, and throat. Of course, that change to breeding plumage probably is triggered more by photoperiod than temperature. Balmy weather didn’t fool the purple finches and juncos, who have lingered as they generally do, waiting perhaps another month to head back north when the sun angle tells them to.
The roar of my neighbor’s tractor from down in the river valley confirms that some farmers are impatient to get going on spring field work. In March, you might wonder? Sure, my Dad hoped to have the oats seeded in March – but he figured tillage and planting could wait another month.
Those decades ago, Dad waited because that’s what HIS dad had done. Now, some progressive farmers wait in order to give their cover crops more time to grow, thus keeping live roots in the ground to prevent erosion, control weeds, and build organic matter
My master gardener wife, Margaret, admits to being a wee bit impatient, too. The broccoli seeds she started under the grow lights already have sprouted. Far be it from me – a green veggie fan – to argue with her!
Our REC bill for February put a monetary benefit on the crazy-warm February. With the sun streaming in our south windows, the furnace hardly ran at all. And when the January snows melted off our solar panels, we could generate much of our own power. The monthly electric bill was less than half of what we paid for January.
What’s to come? A four-letter word, I’d wager. SNOW! I’ve hunted turkeys in an April blizzard and photographed spring wildflowers that were covered by six inches of “chance of scattered flurries.” Climate change or not, I’m leaving the blade and tire chains on my tractor – just in case I need to plow us out again. Although I hesitate to break out the old cliché, we’ve gotta recognize that “this is Iowa
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Yes, Andrea, I agree. Or as Gladys Black liked to say, BUZZARDS!
I saw a Turkey Vulture on March 3 as well! Haven't seen once since.