New! Book Excerpt Series
We’re excited to announce the first of a series of book excerpts in collaboration with New Society Publishers. As British Columbia based B Corp with global impact, we’ve found a strong values alignment in their subject areas, especially with respect to progressive, nature-based learning.
Read on for a short excerpt on Spring from The Big Book of Nature Activities: A Year-Round Guide to Outdoor Learning by Jacob Rodenburg + Drew Monkman
“The average child can identify over 300 corporate logos, but only 10 native plants or animals. This is a comprehensive guide for parents and educators to help youth develop a deeper appreciation of the natural world. This amazing compendium is packed with seasonal games, crafts, skills, stories and observations to make outdoor learning fun!” —Jacob Rodenburg + Drew Monkman
We hope that you’re as excited about this series as we are.
Spring, The Greening Season
Spring usually begins as a tug-of-war with winter. Just when we think warmer weather is here to stay, we are hit with another blast of cold and snow. However, the change of season is always apparent if you take the time to look and listen: the Sun is higher in the sky, daylight is with us until early evening and bird song has returned.
Soon, wetlands come alive with a chorus of frog song, new plant life slowly appears and even the smell of the air changes. Before we know it, the explosive growth of buds, flowers, shoots and leaves totally transforms the landscape and provides a feast for countless insects.
Then, just like clockwork, the much-anticipated birds of spring arrive to devour this smorgasbord of protein and food for their young. A surge of life is all around us.
Some Key Events in Nature in Spring
Overview
The “early spring” period runs from about the start of March through mid-April. “Late spring” covers the period from approximately mid-April through May. Timing of events will vary depending on latitude, elevation and the vagaries of the weather. Climate change, too, is accelerating some events and delaying others. The sequence of events, however, is always the same.
Birds
From early March through early June, birds are returning from their wintering grounds.
Spring is a season of ardent song and courtship displays as birds make claims to nesting territories and try to attract mates. Feeders can be very busy, both with resident species and northbound migrants such as a variety of sparrows.
Early spring
- The first migratory songbirds return with red-winged blackbirds, American robins and song sparrows leading the way in many areas.
- Ducks and geese move north in large numbers and often gather in huge flocks on ice-free sections of lakes and rivers and in meltwater ponds in fields. Watch, too, for loons and grebes.
- Early nesters include Canada geese, common ravens, ospreys, American robins, European starlings and house sparrows.
- The early-morning chorus of robins, sparrows and doves, along with the drumming of woodpeckers, can be overwhelming!
Late spring
- Birding is at its best in late April through mid-May as most of the long-distance migrants from the tropics return.
- These include hummingbirds, warblers, vireos, orioles, tanagers, flycatchers, thrushes and many species of sandpipers and plovers.
- Migratory hummingbirds like the ruby-throated and the rufous are back by early May and make a beeline to feeders. Their natural food in spring includes tree sap oozing from sapsucker drillings.
- Tropical migrants like thrushes and warblers begin nesting.
- Bird song is so rich and diverse that it is often difficult to distinguish all the voices.
Mammals
Early spring
- Wolves, coyotes and foxes may bear young by the end of March, followed shortly by raccoons, skunks and many kinds of squirrels and weasels. This baby boom requires a high degree of hunting and foraging skill on the part of the parents.
- Chipmunks and ground squirrels emerge from their dens, often while there is still snow on the ground. Male muskrats range widely looking for mates.
- Other mammals mating in early spring include skunks, ground squirrels, rabbits, hares, chipmunks, red squirrels and flying squirrels.
- The white winter coats of weasels and snowshoe hares change back to brown.
Late spring
- The mammalian baby boom continues in May with the arrival of baby beavers, deer, moose and many of the species that mated in early spring.
- Moose-watching can be excellent, especially in places where the animals are attracted to salty roadside puddles.
- Antler growth on deer and moose accelerates dramatically because of the increased daylight.
- Young foxes make their first appearance in the open and are entertaining to watch.
Plants
Early spring
- The sap of the sugar maple is running, and people collect it to make maple syrup.
- The furry catkins of pussy willows and aspens poke through bud scales and become a time-honored sign of spring.
- By late March, skunk cabbage is already in bloom. Its unpleasant smell attracts early flies and bees.
- The first wildflowers appear, including coltsfoot with its dandelion-like flowers.
- In woodlands, wild leek pokes through patches of late March snow. Dandelion blossoms will soon turn lawns and roadsides into a riot of yellow.
- Fiddleheads of ostrich and cinnamon ferns appear.
- A pastel wash of swelling tree buds and the flowers of wind-pollinated trees spreads over the landscape, giving distant trees a soft, hazy appearance.
- As flowers burst into bloom, we often forget that the brightly colored petals are not designed to please humans but to attract insects, birds and even bats to pollinate the plants.
Late spring
- By mid-April, carpets of wildflowers such as trilliums brighten still-leafless woodlands.
- By late April, trees are quickly leafing out. Among the first are weeping willow and quaking aspen.
- White flowers abound, including dogwoods, serviceberries, chokecherries and hawthorns.
- Pinks and reds, too, are a signature color. Watch for rhododendrons in many areas.
- Many plants release their seeds to the wind, including aspens, willows and dandelions.
Through all the frozen winter
My nose has grown most lonely
For lovely, lovely, colored smells
That come in springtime only.
The purple smell of lilacs,
The yellow smell that blows
Across the air of meadows
Where bright forsythia grows.
The tall pink smell of peach trees,
The low white smell of clover,
And everywhere the great green smell
Of grass the whole world over.
—Kathryn Worth
