A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
March
Pine grosbeaks and cedar waxwings may come to town to feast on crabapples / White-breasted nuthatches sometimes use birdhouses, starting soon. The entrance hole should be 1¼ inches in diameter / Black bears emerge from hibernation having lost as much as 40 percent of their body weight / Poplar buds begin to open if there is a warm spell / Mourning doves may begin their cooing / Belted kingfishers will come north as soon as there is open water for them to fish in
Stoneflies hatch and can be seen along streams / First batch of red-backed voles are born beneath the snow, usually in forests with at least a fair amount of softwood / Warm nights will bring skunks out of their dens / Like other fish-eating ducks, the hooded mergansers now moving north have serrated bills for holding their slippery prey / Songbirds save their least favorite foods for last: look for evening grosbeaks and robins eating sumac berries
March 20: the vernal equinox, or first day of spring, when day and night are of equal length all over the world / Fisher pups are born / Male woodcocks will return has soon as the ground has thawed enough to make earthworms accessible. Their courting flights will begin soon. Listen for the male’s calls and whistling wings shortly after sunset / First of two litters of red squirrels is born. They will be leaving the nest to look for trouble in about six weeks
The brown creeper’s thin, sibilant song can now be heard in mixed woods throughout northern New England: see see see see / Silver maples are flowering, well before red maples, which in turn flower well before sugar maples / Chickadees are inspecting nest cavities / A litter of 2-4 baby northern flying squirrels is born. Southern flying squirrels will give birth a couple of weeks later / The tips of wild leeks are just beginning to peek through the ground
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These listing are from observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on you latitude, elevation - and the weather.
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© 2008 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
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