We actually have a beautiful summer, on the years it comes.
We get that, too, but more in the May/June timeframe. I try to refer to it as “bukake” and if people ask me what it means, I tell them it’s a Japanese term for tree pollen fallen on the ground in the spring. So far, it hasn’t taken off. I’m bummed.
And, because I really don’t want to be responsible for people googling that term, what bukake really means is:
“To heavily splash” 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.
Robins generally don’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.
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 DJ’s and lots of drinks and private cabanas - so the hiring of “pretty people” 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 don’t start until late March at the earliest.
(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)
I think we all knew that sort of thing was coming. For the record, I’ve never said anything even close to “global warming is a myth”, much less denied the obvious changes in both seasonal temperatures, time of spring, and other related climate issues.
Now please, don’t poop in the topic. Spring is here.
The first thing I notice is the buds on the daphne odora start looking like they’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 didn’t really hurt.
We get Camellia blooms in early-mid winter, so that’s not really harbingering*.
There’s one place we go by regularly that has a couple plants with small yellow flowers this time of year. Don’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 we’ve had cherry trees all around blossoming. So that’s confusing. Looks like spring! In December?
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. Raucous chirps of male peeper frogs that can be heard on evenings in early spring, esp near woodland wetlands, is one of nature’s amazing wonders.
Spring doesn’t officially arrive here until Groundhog’s Day. There’s usually some warm weather around then, and birds can be seen migrating back north.
It’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 he’s correct and we get an early spring, but I doubt it. The traditionally cold week here (MN) is the last week of January.
