With wintry weather in the weekend forecast, I am savoring this springlike day. Temps are in the low 60s, skies are clear and there’s a slight breeze. Hoping to see some signs of spring, I set off on Three-Mile Walk, where things are still looking rather lifeless.
A view from Three-Mile Walk initially appears lifeless.
But then I hear a song sparrow singing from high in a tree. This bird spent the winter in the southern states and is now returning to breed. At the same time, a flock of tundra swans flies and bugles overhead, en route to northern Canada or Alaska.
Song sparrows have begun to return, and tundra swans are making their way north.
Several chipmunks — the first I’ve seen this year — are wildly chasing each other over the forest floor and up trees. One disappears into a small hole in the ground. Chipmunks (members of the squirrel family) build burrow systems that include chambers for sleeping and storing food and waste. They are light hibernators, waking every few weeks during the winter to feed, fully emerging from their burrows in March to begin mating.
Chipmunks are light hibernators, fully emerging from underground burrows in March to mate.
Nearly all deciduous trees produce flowers, and some of the first to do so each spring are red and silver maples and quaking aspen. All three can be found in the Garden for Wildlife. The red maple flowers are just about to burst out of their buds; the silver maples have already done so. Quaking aspens produce flowers in drooping clusters called catkins.
Maples and aspen are some of the first trees to flower in spring.
Two more birds appear, one heralding spring, the other warning of wintry weather. Eastern bluebirds, once rare in our state due to a lack of nesting cavities, have made a strong comeback thanks to the introduction of nesting boxes. Our bluebirds spend winter in the southern states, then return to Minnesota and other northern states for breeding.
Dark-eyed juncos, on the other hand, are a familiar winter bird in the southern half of Minnesota, leaving come spring to breed in northern Minnesota and Canada. Conventional wisdom among birders is that if juncos are still hanging around, we haven’t seen the last snowfall of the year.
Eastern bluebirds are returning as dark-eyed juncos prepare to leave.
There is still some ice on Iris Pond, and a pair of Canada geese walks across it, then steps into the water. A muskrat on the shore munches on an aquatic plant. These animals are well-suited to living in water, with a waterproof coat and a tail that helps propel them forward and acts as a rudder. While people sometimes confuse muskrats with beavers, muskrats are much smaller (1 to 4 pounds versus 20 to 60), and their tails are longer and thinner than beavers’ tails, which are large and flat.
Muskrats are well-suited to their aquatic environment.
Despite the leafless trees and persistent browns and grays, spring has definitely begun. Visit the Arb in the coming days and weeks and watch this lovely season unfold.
Holly Einess is a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer. More information about the program is available on the Minnesota Master Naturalist website.