All things Easter, Spring Solstice, Passover, or Ostara

[Front-Ranger]

It will be the Full Worm Moon this weekend. With the return of the worms comes the return of the robins. And I saw one today!

[Penthesilea]

It will be the Full Worm Moon this weekend. With the return of the worms comes the return of the robins. And I saw one today!

I wondered for a moment. (Our) robins are sedenatary birds. But then I rememered the American robin is a totally different bird, not even closely related to our European robin, and way bigger.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I wondered for a moment. (Our) robins are sedenatary birds. But then I rememered the American robin is a totally different bird, not even closely related to our European robin, and way bigger.

Thanks to climate change, some of our robins now "winter over." They no longer migrate south for the winter. The same thing has happened with our native wild geese. Many now live in our area permanently and do not migrate south for the winter.

I remember when I was a child, one of the sights and sounds of the fall was a V-shaped flock of geese audibly honking as they flew headed due south for the winter. Sometimes at night it would be too dark to see the flock, but you could hear them honking,

[Front-Ranger]

I was reading in the Farmers Almanac about how the date of Easter is calculated. So complicated! So the full moon of tomorrow is called the Lenten Moon, and the one in April will be the Pascal Moon.

[CellarDweller]

Oh, are the Robins out and about?

[Front-Ranger]

  yeah, they're all over the place!

[Penthesilea]

Thanks to climate change, some of our robins now "winter over." They no longer migrate south for the winter. The same thing has happened with our native wild geese. Many now live in our area permanently and do not migrate south for the winter.

I remember when I was a child, one of the sights and sounds of the fall was a V-shaped flock of geese audibly honking as they flew headed due south for the winter. Sometimes at night it would be too dark to see the flock, but you could hear them honking,

Yes, same here, more and more birds either don't migrate anymore or migrate shorter distances than they used to.

Fun fact: already way back in the 70-ies we had a population of sedentary storks neary. In Mannheim there's a big botanical garden and the many glass houses emit enough warmth for storks to stay year-round. Apparently there's also enough food for them in winter.

I like when you hear the migrating geese in the night, but can't see them.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Fun fact: already way back in the 70-ies we had a population of sedentary storks neary. In Mannheim there's a big botanical garden and the many glass houses emit enough warmth for storks to stay year-round. Apparently there's also enough food for them in winter.

There is a nature preserve in the north end of the county where I grew up. It has a big lake, and in the fall thousands of migrating waterfowl would stop there for a rest. It used to be a big deal in the fall to go to see the birds. It was really nice to see these flocks of wild birds against a backdrop of trees in their autumn colors. 

Now in some places there are so many geese they've actually become a pest.    Apparently they can also pose a hazard. We have highway signs with the image of a goose on it.     (That seems funny, but perhaps the thinking is that some motorist might swerve into on-coming traffic while trying to avoid geese crossing the road.)

I like when you hear the migrating geese in the night, but can't see them.

Isn't that nice? 

[Front-Ranger]

Happy Spring! Apparently the Equinox was yesterday. It was in the 60s here but today it's snowing.

[serious crayons]

Oh, I forgot to observe the equinox on the day it happened! Yesterday was in the mid-60s and sunny here. Today the high is 46 and it's supposed to rain all day into tomorrow, when it will turn into snow and the high will be 39.

March.