What is YOUR Sign of Spring?

Learn:

We all have ways that we identify the changing seasons. In late winter, many people begin looking for ways to ensure the coming of warmer months. But in watching social media posts and talking with others, I realized that while we often have similar signs of spring that we wait for, some of us have very different ones!

In our family, we listen for the call of sandhill cranes and redwing blackbirds. My coworker Emma said that she knows it’s spring when she can stay outside barefoot for an afternoon. A Facebook friend has been counting the number of robins in his yard. And one of my former coworkers sent me a picture of the tom turkeys lined up and puffed out to compete for females!

This “noticing” that we do is the HEART of phenology: Observing what happens in nature and WHEN it happens also. So if you’re already doing this, you are doing phenology!!!

No matter how you mark the change from winter to spring, it’s the noticing that matters.

Read:

I’ve really loved the Kenard Pak series about the changing of seasons because it creates a conversation between the reader and the natural world characters in his book. Check out Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring to be introduced to ways that he observed the coming of spring!

Do:

Phenology Wheels!

Want to challenge yourself? Keep track of the natural things you observe outside. A calendar - either digital or paper - works well for this. It could be your firsts of the season - robins, cranes, hummingbirds - or the lasts of these in each season as well. Kept year to year, it makes a great record for observing changes over time.

If you’d like something that challe

nges your creative side, I’ve always loved seeing these phenology wheels. It really emphasizes the year as a cycle rather than ever having an end.