Signs of Spring

This winter has been quite a ride weather wise. Not like a merry-go-round, but like a roller coaster. It is a wonder we don't have whip-lash as we've gone from freezing Polar Vortex lows to sunny late spring like temperatures in a matter of days. This year, we had the 2nd Polar Vortex come to visit us at the same time there was a pollen alert out. How mixed up is that!

 

I have a love/hate relationship with red maple flowers. Love to see them because it means winter is getting closer to the end. But I hate them because I get hay fever. Because this year was so cold, I actually was watching and hoping for the flower buds to swell and pop open. (If you look at the trees right now, maples have a red haze to them which is what their flowers look like from the distance.) 

But I ONLY have a love, love, love relationship to the sights and sounds of sandhill cranes as they migrate through. Even though some years they start heading north in January, they still are a sign (to me) that spring is coming.


How do I know these are sandhill cranes, not geese? In Georgia, Canada Geese are non-migratory. The geese that you do see flying are generally low to the ground and in very small V's.  Sandhill cranes (unless they are coming down for a landing or taking off) fly very high above the tree line.



Hal Massie got a great picture of a large V plus a mass of swirling birds. The mass of cranes are "swirling" up in the sky to catch a better thermal to fly in.  (Thermal's are good because it gives migrating birds a boost, like a tail wind behind a plane.)  It is fascinating to watch them swirl up, up, up in the sky and then suddenly shoot out into a new thermal and form up into V's.

 

Another way to tell whether you are watching  cranes versus geese is to listen to their calls. They sound completely different! Here is a link to listen to the Sandhill crane call . The first sound is what you frequently here in the sky above you. If you are a sandhill aficionado, the mere hint of their call will cause you to drop what you are doing, race through the house, tripping on everything, to stand outside and scan the skies trying to see them in the air.

 

Not that I love weeds but after such a hard winter, I'm even glad to see the winter weeds popping up in the mulch layer even though I know they need to be pulled sooner than later.

There are smells to the signs of spring too - daphne and winter blooming honeysuckle are delicious if you get a hint of them.

And we mustn't forget watching, watching, watching, impatiently watching and waiting for that darned daffodil to FINALLY open. By the time this post is done it will hopefully have opened!

Vicki