Woods Wanderer

A couple days ago, while the sun was shining brightly at midday, I drove to the nearby Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge to go for a walk. I took my binoculars with me, just in case. Good thing I did. A fellow birder pointed out a sandhill crane shortly after I left the parking lot. It was airborne a couple hundred yards away, crossing a huge field. I got a brief look at that huge bird before it disappeared.

At the beginning of a short walk around Stephen Young Marsh, I stopped by the viewing platform to see if there were any other birds around. I spotted a few Canada geese and a pair of ducks at the other end of the marsh. That is all. But I had a small bottle in my pocket to collect a sample of water from the marsh for later viewing. Good thing I did. I would find algae, protozoa and tiny crustaceans in the sample I took – the first stirring of microscopic life I’ve seen this year.

Then my walk began in earnest. I tramped through patches of mud and meltwater before reaching a boardwalk then slightly higher ground. With temps shooting into the 60s last week, I wasn’t surprised to find the trail completely free of snow and ice. With the sun beating down through the cloudless sky, I was quite comfortable walking despite temps no higher than 40 degrees. A woodpecker knocked, robins foraged on the forest floor, and red-winged blackbirds chattered in the treetops. Otherwise the woods were quiet and still.

I say I went for a walk, but it was really more of a meander. I was dressed for hiking yet moving ridiculously slow. I stopped repeatedly to look around. I scanned vernal pools for more signs of life. No peepers yet – too early for that. But I found clusters of their eggs in the shallow water. It won’t be long before their chorus begins.

I returned home with a touch of spring fever. Two days later, I’m still feeling that dreamy euphoria despite the winter storm now brewing at daybreak. Most people see snow and think winter, but I shrug it off this time of year just as the land does. It won’t stick. And a good run of 50/60 degree days is just around the corner, not to mention wildflowers awakening from their long slumber. This is my favorite time of year, chock full of promise.

Tags: awakening, bird watching, early spring, hiking, microbes, vernal pools

With temps shooting into the 50s yesterday afternoon, I pulled on my boots and went for a walk on the nearby Rail Trail. The sun shining through a mostly clear sky hastened the big melt-off currently underway. While there was still a thin layer of packed snow and ice on the trail, walking was easy. The punky ice and slush gave way with each step I took, and the slight imprint of my boot in the half-thawed earth of the exposed places made me smile.

Robins foraged along the edges of the trail. The nearby brook ran ice-free here and there. A gentle breeze rocked the naked branches overhead. The mildness of late winter air caressing my face came as something of a pleasant surprise. It’s not even mid-March – way too early to say winter is over here in northern Vermont. But I couldn’t help feeling that spring is imminent.

This morning I hear the unfamiliar call of some bird, or is it just my imagination? I step outside, binoculars in hand, glassing the trees for some newcomer. Temps are seasonably cold today, yet the sun burns with vernal potency, scrambling my thoughts. I had planned on staying indoors today and getting lots of literary work done, but now I realize that’s not going to happen. The natural world is awakening right now, despite the calendar, and I need to be a part of it. Are there any migrating birds moving up Lake Champlain yet? If so, which ones? There’s only one way to find out.

This morning early, I immersed myself in yet another long winter writing session, toying with my abstractions about the natural world. But now it feels like I need to get out there and mix it up with the wild. I need to get down and dirty with the reality of nature and witness the first hints of spring despite whatever cold temps and snowflakes may come during the next few weeks. I’m not being rational about this. Much warmer temps are only a few days away, and that’ll be a much better time to venture outdoors and celebrate seasonal change. But there’s no time like the present. Oh yeah, I’m a sucker for spring – even the slightest suggestion of it.

Tags: early spring, seasonal change, the wildness within, walking