As you can see from this photo taken Friday while cross-country skiing, Spring has not sprung in my neck of the woods. However, just overhead as I took this shot were several dozen robins perched in the birch. They were chattering a great deal – I imagine in complaint about which bird brain thought it was time to migrate back north.
A couple of years ago at this seasonal juncture I wrote about phenology – the study of timing for nature’s ways. For us in Minnesota the robins’ arrival is a sure sign of warmer weather around the corner.
Having just returned from a Spring break in Florida, I wondered how these southerners can detect seasonal changes. My searching on internet reveals little, other than this announcement of the first phenology workshop in Florida in 2009. The one sure sign of Spring for Floridians is the hordes of Minnesotans coming down for a break. They probably trump anything more subtle from Mother Nature.