“For lo, the winter is past…the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come.” (Song of Solomon 2:11, 12)
Yes, spring needs an exclamation point! I think everyone, both young and old, likes spring.
The spring equinox occurs this year on March 20. Equi = equal, while nox refers to night. The spring equinox refers to the time when the sun shines directly over the equator, making days and nights of equal length. So that means we have twelve hours of both daylight and darkness in our twenty-four-hour day.
What signs of spring have you been noticing? I enjoy watching the mountains. Red maples budding are one of the first colors to appear on the mountainsides where I live. They really stand out, giving a soft shade of light red among the drab browns of barren trees around them.
Next, I excitedly notice serviceberry putting on their spring attire. They are a shorter tree having small white delicate blossoms with five petals around many stamens, giving them a lacy look.
A little later, redbud trees adorn the hillsides and highways. They aren’t a true red, but more like a bright orchid-red. Another name for them is forest pansy. Be sure to take a closer look at the leaves when they appear after the tree has past its blooming stage. The leaves are heart-shaped!
The last small tree I’ll mention is the dogwood. That’s not a very nice name for such a beautiful tree with large white 4-petaled bracts. Some believe the name, coming from 16th century English, refers to the hardness of the wood. It was used for making skewers and tools. In North America, the tree has symbolized resilience and hope.
Let’s leave the trees and look at the forest floor. Spring wildflowers are my favorites. I live near a hollow where numerous spring flowers thrive. Depending on the weather, many begin blooming early without waiting on the calendar date for the first day of spring.
One of the earliest is bloodroot. This hardy flower is white with eight to ten petals around a center of bright yellow stamens. If you break the stem, you’ll find it contains an orange-colored liquid. Over the years, this has been used for dyes and medicines.
Coltsfoot is another favorite early bloomer. Many mistake it for a dandelion, but it’s easy to identify the difference once you have seen one. Coltsfoot bloom on a taller stalk, and the leaves appear after blooming, while the dandelion puts forth leaves before it blooms. The leaves have a very different shape, and the flower is smaller than that of a dandelion.
Round or pointed-leafed hepaticas cling to hillside ledges; they may be white, pink, lavender, or blue. Hepaticas may have from six to ten “petals” which are really sepals, the bud’s protective covering.
Another favorite is the trillium growing in rich, deciduous forests. It has been called the triplet flower. Three bracts grow up from underground rhizomes, and from these leaves, as they’re also called, a stalk of three-petaled flowers produces a showy bloom. There are about fifty different members of the same genus in a variety of colors including white, yellow, burgundy, and white with pink centers.
I must not leave out the trout lily, or adder’s tongue, as it’s also called. It also grows in rich woodlands and is a member of the lily family. It is shaped like a lily and has two speckled leaves near the ground, thus giving it the name “trout.” I prefer that name over adder’s tongue!
As you go hiking, remember to take a flower guide along to learn the names and characteristics of many others—wild ginger, Dutchman’s breeches, squirrel corn, toothwort, Solomon’s seal, wild geranium, cinquefoil, Indian pipe, pinesap, fringed polygala, shooting star, and blue cohosh, to name a few.
Besides numerous wildflowers, there are the morel mushrooms to be found on the forest floor. These fungi provide a delicious treat for your efforts. Morels are dependent on weather patterns to pop up from an underground web-like mycelium. With warmer days and nights and adequate rainfall, they may be found in abundance. Trespassers may also be found as many scour the woods in search of this delicacy.
Another wild edible delicacy is the ramp. Ramps are found on eastern hillsides in the Appalachian Mountains. They are similar to wild onions and garlic with an underground bulb and flat green leaves. Diggers often harvest them by sacksful and sell them to local markets or clean them for ramp dinners which draw in the locals from far and wide. However, it is important to leave some behind so they can reproduce.
Ramps leave your breath with a distinct odor which may be detected clear across the room. So, who would want to eat them? They are very nutritious, and it is possible to cover the odor. If you get tired of smelling them, all you have to do is eat one, and that takes care of the problem for you!
“The time of the singing of birds…” I can’t begin to mention all the birds blending their songs in spring. Bluebirds begin singing as early as February, not only while sitting on branches, but also during flight. They are good at catching insects while flying.
Another insect eliminator is the swallow. I look forward to my Tree Swallows coming every spring and nesting in my birdhouse. It’s great to not have so many biting bugs around!
Robins are a favorite of many; they raise offspring near my house every year as well. Their colors aren’t as vibrant as some birds, but their eggs are a lovely shade of blue. Their rich song can be heard a little before daybreak and into late evening. While the males of many types of birds are more colorful than females, it is hard to tell the difference between a male and female robin, as both have orange breasts and gray backs. However, males typically have darker heads and richer-colored orange breasts than the females.
A couple of my favorites, which are worth getting up before daylight to hear, are the Eastern Whip-poor-will and the Wild Turkey. Both of these birds have a unique sound, and both lay their eggs on the ground. Whip-poor-wills may put a few sticks together on a large rock or ledge and call it a nest. This nocturnal bird sings throughout the night and is so camouflaged they are difficult to see. I love to see their little eyes glowing red in my headlights while traveling along a mountain road.
The male turkey’s gobble may be heard at early daylight, before it’s light enough to fly off his roost. He’s gobbling and listening for the answering “couk” of a hen that is willing to accept his courtship invitation.
Turkey hens often make a nest in leaves on the ground in thickets or wooded areas. Their eggs are large, and they may lay up to fourteen or more, as hens are large enough to cover them for incubating. Although the eggs don’t leave a scent, raccoons and opossums sometimes stumble onto them and destroy the nest.
I once found a nest with over a dozen eggs; later I came back and was happy to discover they had hatched! Many of the shells were there in halves. However, if you find a nest, don’t go back too soon. It takes twenty-eight days for turkeys to hatch, and Mother Hen would not appreciate being chased off her nest.
I can’t stop without telling you about springtime at my cabin. I have both spring peepers (I call them peep frogs) and bull frogs singing in my pond. I can’t understand the words, but it’s a lovely sound. They do not open their mouths to sing. Air from their lungs passes over the vocal cords and back again. Many species also have air sacs on the sides of their necks to amplify the sound.
My trail camera behind the pond isn’t good enough to see frogs singing, but it is exciting to see little spotted fawns with their mothers drinking from the pond and browsing on the grass. I get even more excited when I see bucks beginning to grow their antlers near the end of April into May.
Hopefully, this little scatterment of spring things will motivate you to get outdoors and discover even more for yourself.
I agree with the songwriter, “What a wondrous time is spring when all the trees are budding. The birds begin to sing; the flowers start their blooming. That’s how it is with God’s love once you’ve experienced it. You want to sing; it’s fresh like spring. You want to pass it on.”