Spring Is Here

The ritual of looking for signs of spring in Northern New York is a time-honored tradition.  While growing up and until I was in my fourth decade, I always waited for my first sighting of a robin as a harbinger of spring.  Only when I had seen a robin did I realize spring had arrived.

Then came a day when I was driving along a country road with my brother Bob as a passenger.  It was a warmish day and spring was nearing.  We simultaneously spotted several red wing blackbirds pecking in the gravel of the roadside.  I mentioned it was odd to see them as I knew they migrated, and I had not seen a robin yet, usually the first of the migrating species to return.  Bob informed me that the red wings always preceded the robins by at least a day or two.  I had never in my life noticed that, but ever since I’ve found it to be true.

On another early spring occasion I stopped to visit my mother.  In the middle of her kitchen table was a vase filled with pussy willows.  I mentioned that it was nice to see any form of new growth after a dreary winter season.  She told me that my brother Ron had picked them and delivered them to her, as he did every spring.  I didn’t know that.  She told me Ron had done that for many years so that she might see spring’s first arrival.  I argued that red wings were the first sign of spring, but she insisted pussy willows were usually ahead of the red wings which, of course, preceded the robins.

So, as my mother never lied nor was she ever wrong, I now knew that I must watch for pussy willows to learn that spring had arrived.  Tuesday, March 6^th, I spotted these sprouting from their pods near a wet area on my property.  I took a photo so that you might see them also.  Later the same day, my wife pointed out a pair of red wings eating from the ground beneath our yard feeder.  I was unable to obtain a photo before they left, possibly to continue their northward journey into Canada five miles or so away.

I haven’t spotted a robin yet this spring, but on the other hand spring will not officially be here yet for another dozen days.