# Early harbingers of spring where you live **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592 "2014-01-12T17:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/21 "2014-01-13T16:56:37Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > A good year in the UP is when summer falls on a weekend. We actually have a beautiful summer, on the years it comes. šŸ˜ƒ > [@swampbear](#): > > Around February 1st weā€™ll start seeing pine pollen. A little bit at first and then by March it covers everything. That sticky yellow spawn of horny pine trees will be everywhere! We get that, too, but more in the May/June timeframe. I try to refer to it as ā€œbukakeā€ and if people ask me what it means, I tell them itā€™s a Japanese term for tree pollen fallen on the ground in the spring. So far, it hasnā€™t taken off. Iā€™m bummed. And, because I really donā€™t want to be responsible for people googling that term, what bukake really means is: ā€œTo heavily splashā€ according to Wiki. In the US, it generally is used only to describe porn in which many men ejaculate at once, all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/22 "2014-01-13T17:39:59Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I saw a robin the other day, but itā€™s still the middle of winter. Robins generally donā€™t actually leave during the winter. They just hang out in the woods. So as harbingers of spring, they are very overrated. Red-winged blackbirds are more reliable (and noisier). I guess around here, maple sap is a good harbinger. In places where they harvest it, you can see the buckets go up, but even in non-harvested trees, you can occasionally see the sap running from a broken branch. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/23 "2014-01-13T17:51:10Z")
In Las Vegas, there are already tons of full page ads in local free rags, hiring people to work at casino swimming pools and at the pool party sites. They are huge party places - hundreds and hundreds of tourists hang out at these pool parties in the afternoons and they have big name DJā€™s and lots of drinks and private cabanas - so the hiring of ā€œpretty peopleā€ in swim suits is fast and early. You actually have to wear a swim suit/bikini for the interview - in January. Most of these pool parties donā€™t start until late March at the earliest. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/24 "2014-01-13T18:02:15Z")
The Mango trees are blooming. (this is a really bad thing [thanks global warming] as this is two months too early, and like last year, the odds are the February/March cold will kill the new buds. And there will be no Mangoes this year) Sorry to complain in the Spring thread. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/25 "2014-01-13T20:29:51Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > The Mango trees are blooming. > > (this is a really bad thing [thanks global warming] as this is two months too early, and like last year, the odds are the February/March cold will kill the new buds. And there will be no Mangoes this year) > > Sorry to complain in the Spring thread. [We have it on good, or at least excessivly long-winded, authority that global warming is a myth.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=699678) Your mango trees must be imagining it. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/26 "2014-01-13T20:58:43Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > global warming is a myth. I think we all knew that sort of thing was coming. For the record, Iā€™ve never said anything even close to ā€œglobal warming is a mythā€, much less denied the obvious changes in both seasonal temperatures, time of spring, and other related climate issues. Now please, donā€™t poop in the topic. Spring is here. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/27 "2014-01-13T21:40:26Z")
When thereā€™s more mud than snow. Sometime in April/May ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/28 "2014-01-13T21:41:31Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I saw a robin the other day, but itā€™s still the middle of winter. Here is Minnesota we have them here year round. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/29 "2014-01-13T21:42:47Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Red-winged blackbirds are more reliable (and noisier). > . Yes. Iā€™m also told that birch trees started shedding seeds in St. Paul about a week and a half ago. Spring can only be three months away now! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/30 "2014-01-13T22:41:06Z")
The first thing I notice is the buds on the daphne odora start looking like theyā€™re about to take off. Usually stuff like crocus beats it to actual blooming, but those reddish buds always look promising. Hope they open this year. Last year a bad freeze at the wrong time and they stalled out just as they were beginning to open. Had a bad freeze the other day, but with 2-3 weeks to go, maybe that didnā€™t really hurt. We get Camellia blooms in early-mid winter, so thatā€™s not really harbingering\*. Thereā€™s one place we go by regularly that has a couple plants with small yellow flowers this time of year. Donā€™t know what those are. (Not forsythia!) Small, evergreen leaves on wiry green branches. Sort of like Scotch broom but wrong flowering time. For the 2nd year in a row weā€™ve had cherry trees all around blossoming. So thatā€™s confusing. Looks like spring! In December? - Hey, my spell checker says thatā€™s a real word. ---
**Author:** ![jrsone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jrsone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrsone)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/31 "2014-01-13T22:49:24Z")
The days are ever so slightly getting longerā€¦ I canā€™t wait for springā€¦ Iā€™m moving out of my current house, hopefully, starting over so to speak in a new neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/32 "2014-01-13T23:03:06Z")
I think [witch hazel](http://www.yourgardensanctuary.com/witch-hazel-tree/) has small yellow late-winter flowers, **ftg**. Is that what youā€™re seeing? ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/33 "2014-01-13T23:42:07Z")
As some have already mentioned, the call of red wing black birds, but also the loud "peep-peep"s of a type of chorus frog called the [spring peeper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_peeper). Raucous chirps of male peeper frogs that can be heard on evenings in early spring, esp near woodland wetlands, is one of natureā€™s amazing wonders. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/34 "2014-01-13T23:56:00Z")
Spring doesnā€™t officially arrive here until Groundhogā€™s Day. Thereā€™s usually some warm weather around then, and birds can be seen migrating back north. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/35 "2014-01-14T01:25:03Z")
Itā€™s when the cardinals start making their territorial calls as others return from parts south. I actually heard a robin making territory calls last week as we exited the deep freeze. I hope heā€™s correct and we get an early spring, but I doubt it. The traditionally cold week here (MN) is the last week of January. Good luck Mr. Robin! ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/36 "2014-01-14T02:45:26Z")
Fresh mangos are in the mercado. I love mangos! ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/37 "2014-01-14T03:19:17Z")
Forget about Springā€¦California needs some Winter. 3 inches of snow at Lake Tahoe this weekend ainā€™t shit. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/38 "2014-01-14T03:59:05Z")
Spring for us in the tropical Caribbean is when the birds leave, heading back north. We also see the winter rains abate. Soon weā€™ll start hearing about the planning for the Orchid Show, culminating int he actual event in early March. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/39 "2014-01-14T16:34:27Z")
Christmas merchandise appears in stores. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592/40 "2014-01-14T17:38:37Z")
Early bulbs will start to bloom in March, here. Unfortunately we often get a serious snowstorm in March. Poor little bulbs. We just had three days of unseasonably warm weather, and I got a whiff of springtime. Got me all excited. Now back to January-February-March, phooey. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-harbingers-of-spring-where-you-live/678592.md?page=3)