That’s what Punxsutawney Phil said anyway. I say 6 weeks and 4 days, since the official first day of spring (the vernal equinox) is March 20th. In early March after we’ve had a few pleasant days and folks start remarking that “spring is here” I’m always the first one to chime in and remind them that winter (i.e., cold, snow, nor’easters, etc.) is not over yet. In fact, sometimes it refuses to go away even after the official first day of spring. This is New England after all! One of the worst snowstorms I can remember was April 1, 1997, which dumped more than 2 feet of snow on us. 

But just because it doesn’t feel like spring (and it probably won’t for a while), doesn’t mean there aren’t signs of spring’s impending arrival all around us. This is because the timing of natural occurrences (i.e., blooming, migration, etc.), also known as phenology, is often dictated by the amount of daylight rather than temperature or snowfall. On December 21, 2020, the shortest day of the year (winter solstice), we had just over 9 hours of daylight here in Bourne; sunrise was at 7:06 AM and sunset at 4:15 PM. Today we had 10 hours and 7 minutes of daylight, with sunrise occurring at 6:53 AM and sunset at 5:00 PM. 

That additional hour of daylight has made all the difference. Black-capped chickadees are starting to sing their “spring’s here” song more frequently. The song sparrows in my yard have been singing quietly to themselves during the last couple weeks, and one of them just started to raise his volume and increase his song length today. Male eastern gray squirrels are starting to chase females in preparation for mating, as well as starting to act more aggressively towards other males. There have been a number of high speed squirrel chases through my tree tops lately, sometimes involving as many as 4 or 5 individuals. Other things to keep an eye out for in February are the return of red-winged blackbirds and blooming skunk cabbage flowers.

We might technically have 6+ weeks of winter, but what signs of spring are you starting to see?