This is an exciting time of the year. The awakening season.
Look around out there: Winter is losing its grip
It's evident in the singing cardinals, the warmth of the sun, the snowmelt seen at the base of some trees.
By Jim Gilbert
March 3, 2022 at 10:54PM
On sunny days no matter the air temperature, cars parked in sunlight warm up, we see much melting of snow and ice in streets and on rooftops even when the temperatures is well below the freezing point, and neighborhood northern cardinals sing loud and long and woodpeckers drum. The sounds help the birds to declare territories.
By this time the first few eastern chipmunks have emerged from their underground burrows and are out and about.
March could be the peak of the snow season, but it's also our first month of real spring. Migrating American crows and bald eagles return to northern Minnesota where deep snow covers much of the landscape. Some of the best cross-country skiing and snowshoeing of the entire winter still is to be had.
Both in parts of southern and northern Minnesota, circles of bare ground around tree trunks are evident. This sure sign of the changing seasons is welcomed. In a little more than a month we may find some green grasses or other growing plants in these spots.
The increased amount of daylight makes for lighter days. Sunlight is mostly reflected off snow, but not off dark tree bark, which absorbs heat from the lengthening light and slowly radiates it back to the surrounding snow. The melted snow may extend out from trees several inches to a foot or more. Because evergreens with branches down near ground level have shaded trunks, snowmelt around them isn't likely. But in the maple-basswood forest or around other deciduous trees, the snowmelt tells us that winter is losing its grip.
Don and Mary Somers from Somerskogen Sugarbush in Minnetrista, not far from Lake Minnetonka, report that they have slightly more than 1,000 taps in and are expecting the first good maple sap flows at any time.
Their son Peter came from Rochester the weekend of Feb. 19 to help with the drilling and tapping of the sugar maples. Sap flow is triggered by thawing days reaching into the 40s. Last year they recorded their first sap flow of the year Feb. 26. This year it was the 28th, when Don said "the trees are just starting to wake up."
It could be almost another week before they collect enough sap to start the evaporator and make the first syrup.
Jim Gilbert has worked and taught as a naturalist for more than 50 years.
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Jim Gilbert
None of the boat’s occupants, two adults and two juveniles, were wearing life jackets, officials said.
