Think Spring

Spring is returning to Maine.

The snow piles are at long-last melting, uncovering dead lawns and last fall’s leaves and lots of sand (which frugal Mainers are collecting in buckets for reuse next year). Birds and small animals have been missing most of the winter, but they are making a return — where did they go and how did they survive February?

I have a friend who usually has deer on the perimeter of her property. It’s hard to feel sorry for deer, but in the middle of the winter she discovered them right up next to the house, taking turns suckling on the bird feeder. Those are really hungry deer! And no surprise — the snow had buried all their usual shrubbery.

A few weeks ago I was in the home office and heard a squeaking/rustling sound that sounded exactly as if a herd of guinea pigs were under the house. Since the home office is on a pad with no basement there were clearly no guinea pigs and I was just as clearly confused — I’m guessing that what I actually heard was a flock of turkeys behind the house. They nest in trees — but again, I hadn’t seen or heard them all winter.

My owl has returned as well. He/she has been unusually silent (absent) this winter, but s/he is now whoo-whooing away in the early morning, and once again, s/he likes it — or at least participates in it — when I whoo-whoo in return. I don’t know what we are saying to one another, but we certainly come forth with some powerful duets.

It may be Holy Week, but snow flurries are predicted tonight for northern Maine. Here in the southern half of the state we are much more sanguine about the near future.

Spring is at long last returning to Maine.