Happy Earth Day, Everyone! I've lived down here for nearly thirty years, but I still can't get used to seeing trilliums in bloom in April. Where I come from they are a feature of late May in the woods. But this year, I'm pretty sure they're early, brought on by that hot spell that had us stuffing our sweaters away in boxes, forgetting that we'd be sure to have at least one more snowfall before winter was done with us.
This time, I'm not wrong. My searches of the web reveal that other people, the people who actually keep track of these things in a regimented, organized way, have found them early too, a week early to be exact. Accordingly, I have hung out my hummingbird feeder a week early too. My youngest son tells me he has already seen two hummingbirds in two different locations. Its easy to be fooled: at this time of year so many small fast fliers are about; bumblebees, warblers. Its easy to tell yourself that the speed demon you caught just at the edge of your peripheral vision was one of the longed-for returnees. But so early? It couldn't be. My earliest record of a male hummingbird in our yard is April 27. Back when we lived in the Rideau Lakes area, it was more likely to be May 6 or 8. There's no question that the seasons have shifted a bit.
Happy Earth Day?
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