Finally - a definite sign of Spring at the Nature Center

I've been waiting to post until we spotted a sign of Spring at the nature center. We started watching March 1 and today finally - almost at the end of the month - a returning migrator. One of the Naturalist Fellows was out with a group of students and they saw a Great Blue Heron flying overhead. Wahoo!

Now I was banking on red-winged blackbirds arriving in the past week - they're usually the first to arrive in mid-March. But I'm not disappointed. I'm just glad to see things are changing. Temperatures in the 50s and returning birds - she's taking her time, but Spring has finally arrived.

It's Spring! It's Spring?

There's more than half a foot of snow covering the ground. Strong winds of the past two days have created knee-deep drifts. Dragon's teeth icicles are posed on gutters, waiting for their chance to impale the ground beneath. Temperatures dance between single digits and the teens.

Am I describing January? February? No - I am describing the first day of Spring - today. Where is our typical Spring? The jet stream continues to stray to the south, allowing cold air from Canada to ooze southward. When it meets up with the snow-covered ground, what we're left with is cold, cold, and more cold.  The sun's strength is the same as we experience in September, but all that snow and frozen ground leaves us with this endless winter.

It wasn't the coldest start to the first day of Spring ever in Minnesota. That record goes to March 20, 1965 when the day started at -9F and barely reached into the single digits. But today puts us in the top ten coldest starts to Spring. Yeah! (spoken facetiously, of course.)

A year ago

You remember Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day? When he finally flips out and says something like "This winter is never going to end..."?

That's how I feel right about now. Especially thinking back to a year ago today - we set a record high temperature: 80F. We shut off the furnace and forgot to turn it back on that night and it didn't matter. It was gorgeous! (Okay - the warm temps did mean a crappy maple syruping season, but winter was over at least.)

Today, in 2013, it's yet another day of below average temperatures with another snowstorm on the way. I've lost two mittens from different pairs so far this winter. And I'm tired of wearing longjohns.

Remind me of how much I wanted winter to be over when we've hit our seventeenth day of over 90F.

So exactly who is it that wants Daylight Saving Time?

Tomorrow morning at 2 a.m., the clocks need to "spring ahead" as Daylight Saving Time goes into effect. It's murder to have to get up one hour earlier - worse than jet lag. It seems like it takes forever to adjust to the time change. So why do we do this, you ask?

An author named Michael Downing was curious, too. He researched the history of DST and wrote a book (Spring Forward) explaining it all. What it comes down to is that merchants and sports organizations were the force behind changing time. Not farmers - they hated it. And not ordinary people. DST was driven by greed - if it's light later at night, people will be more likely to go out shopping. Downing explains that DST has always been controversial, not just in the U.S., but around the world. There's no good reason why we do it. Remember that Monday morning as you're crawling out of bed at an ungodly hour.

Water, water, everywhere...

Came to work today and spotted a large pool of water (still liquid) alongside the entryway as I drove in.

Turned into the parking lot to see it awash - a stream flowing across the frozen ground towards West Nile Park (the area in the center that holds water in the spring as a breeding ground for mosquitoes). A water main break! (The city's responsibility, fortunately...)

Water flowing across the parking lot

A group of the naturalists followed the flowing water - it must have been running quite awhile since it meandered toward the preschool and into the Farm Pond. An amazing sight and sound -to hear the gurgling of flowing water while snow falls.


Water filling the ephemeral creek behind the Museum/Lab



Standing on bridge near Preschool facing west



Water on top of ice in the Farm Pond