The 1- to 2-inch fruiting bodies of the scarlet cup fungus develop their intense red color in late winter. Look for them as soon as the snow melts, usually on fallen hardwood branches / Not too many migrants are back, but local residents, such as cardinals, are more vocal now / Meadow voles breed almost year-round. The first of their 4-10 litters has probably been born. At 4-5 babies per litter, it’s no wonder that they are such abundant mammals

Look for early robins, bluebirds, and song sparrows / Stone flies are hatching. Look for them resting on rocks near streams / Short tailed weasels are losing their white winter coats / Earliest migrating ducks, if the weather is reasonable: black, mallard, greater scaup, lesser scaup, ring necked, and common merganser / Chickadees prefer birdhouses that are in or near woods. On their own, they use rotten stubs, tree cavities, and abandoned woodpecker holes

The tiny new leaves of big-toothed aspen give a distinctive gray-green tint to wooded hillsides / Muskrats may be mating. Up to eight little muskrats, each weighing less than an ounce, will be born in about a month / Crows may be seen carrying nesting material / Whitetail bucks begin growing antlers, nourished by a system of veins and arteries within the dense marrow. Developing antlers are so well supplied with blood that they would feel warm to the touch

Saturn will be at its closest to Earth on March 22. This is the best time to view the ringed planet and its moons, although the rings will be nearly edge-on this year and not so easy to see / Wood frogs are arriving at ponds to breed. Egg laying is synchronized, and adults will return to the woods within a week or two / Grouse drumming begins. It will continue for many weeks / Hooded mergansers stay in rivers until ice disappears from their breeding ponds