I went for a walk around my yard today and saw so many incredible signs of this amazing season! Here are some of them.
At the side of my house I was startled (but not scared) when I encountered a sunning Garter Snake – it loved the new warmth of spring! Garter Snakes are named after striped garter belts that were used to hold up socks and stockings before elastics were invented. In fact, their scientific name sirtalis means `like a garter belt` in Latin! Then I found out that the Aspen trees at the front of our house are male (some trees have male and female flowers, others, like aspens, are either male or female.) These had male flowers (middle photo), also called catkins. The tiny purple sacs on the catkin are filled with pollen, which will float on the wind to fertilize female aspen flowers. Later in spring, female aspen catkins become a string of fluffy seeds, which get carried on the wind like snowflakes! My next sign of spring was a Dandelion, just starting to grow. Dandelions get their name from `dent-de-lion,` which means `lion`s tooth`in french. But their French name is actually `piss-en-lit` because they are a diuretic (if you eat them, you `wet the bed`)!
The chipmunks in our back yard are great signs of spring. They are ground squirrels, and are true hibernators. They spent much of the winter in a sort of suspended animation, with their heart rate slowed to just a few beats per minute (from their normal 350 beats per minute!) and their body temperature drops to just a few degrees above freezing. Every few days they wake up, warm up, pee and poop, eat some of the food they collected last fall, and go back to sleep. But now spring’s warmth has aroused them and they are very active! I’m always amazed by how many seeds they can stuff into their cheeks – it’s like they’ve got a couple of shopping bags to take home the groceries!
An Eastern Chipmunk, cheeks stuffed with sunflower seeds.
Dan the Nature Man 