The Darker Signs of Spring

A friend called in yesterday to report seeing numerous robins, bluebirds, and blackbirds in the fields around Sheep Pasture. Sure signs of spring we've been taught to believe, but many robins are permanent residents of Easton. While some drift south, others hunker down in the forests and become invisible for the winter. With climate change bluebirds have begun to winter over here in significant numbers as well although those numbers can decline sharply in bad winters like this one.

 Photo from www.naturepicsonline.com

That leaves the red-winged blackbird as the true harbinger of spring. Birders compete to be the first ones to hear the raspy song of the male as he tries to establish a breeding territory a couple of weeks before the return of potential mates. Blackbirds pop-up in mid-February in warmer years. I've yet to hear the blackbird sing, but I saw another sign of spring more than two weeks ago.

Photo from Wikipedia

Yes, folks, the vultures have returned to the Taunton dump. They usually follow along after the blackbirds, but I saw a turkey vulture scouting for lunch along Route 138 in late February. In reality, however, the latest field guides I have show even vultures and blackbirds as permanent residents in southernmost New England.

Now I enjoy the flash of red and orange that distinguishes the blackbird and wish some PR guys would rework the name of the vulture-how about red-headed ecocleaner, but basic black doesn't make me think spring. A much more reliable and prettier harbinger is a small plant called winter aconite.

Photo from Wikipedia

This little plant popped out of the snow drifts this week in full flower. It often flowers in mid-February and seems to have its own anti-freeze. Even the crocus follows along behind this sunny little flower. Its a European forest plant related to the buttercup and monkshood, the true aconite. This little beauty has a lifestyle common to many native wildflowers in our woods-its above ground presence is over before the big trees leaf out and cut off the sunlight needed for photosynthesis. And if you think too deeply, the plant is almost as grim as the vulture-every part contains a deadly poison although it is so bitter tasting that it's unlikely anyone would accidentally eat enough to get ill. 

 

Hooray, vultures and poisonous plants, can summer be far behindd?