Weather & wildlife thoughts on the dawn of spring

photos by Jonathan Schechter

Wood frogs are nearly done breeding. The maple sap run ended almost as soon as it began.
 A delightful symphony of all frog species drifts in sultry winter evening air. And the first toad of the
season trilled from a swamp in Oakland County on the last night of winter, instead of  June!
 A snake basked on my sunny woodpile that should be capped in crusty snow.

Salamanders and fairy shrimp dance and wiggle to primordial rhythms in shrinking vernal ponds.
Barred owls hoot back and  forth in broad daylight.   
Creatures of all sizes and shapes are restless, perhaps they sense this weather is not the
 norm,  for who are we to question their finely adapted abilities to be aware of, and wary 
of the changing environment around them.
 We are just humans locked in our own  little worlds, a world often light-years removed from true
awareness of nature. Today is Day 4 of consecutive days of records high. 

We should not be flirting with 80 degrees.

Climate change may be an abstract concept for some, and denied by others.

But weather is as real and in your face as this winter has been lame.
  Powerful tornadoes with strange movement patterns this winter should have sent a message:
 Global warming is no longer some alien concept of Al Gore.
Something is happening.

To say otherwise is to be the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.

Go for a walk in the woods, find a quite spot and sit on this day of the vernal equinox.
Perhaps you, like me, will wonder what spring and summer may bring.
Perhaps we forgot we share the same sun, earth, moon, wind and weather of our wild brethren.

 A walk in the woods may remind us of our place on Earth.

A garter snake sunned on my woodpile on the last full day of winter. Temp: 82 degrees