Harbinger of Spring

Harbinger of Spring Shared by Melissa Donahue Naturalist January 2021 Photos by the authoress Can you feel the change? The days are getting longer, the male goldfinches are getting brighter, shoots of daffodils are poking above the ground, and if you’re quiet you will hear owls hooting in the woods. When I start to feel this change, I head to the wetlands. It is at the wetland that spring starts for me. There are two wetlands that I visit. The first is close to the ballfields, behind the row of trees in Edwin Warner. I love to go there; the water flows across the land with an energy that reveals the promise of spring. The second is on the Nature Center campus. It is attached to the pond on the Nature Center grounds. Water running through the wetland According to the Izaak Walton Leagueof America , a wetland is an ecosystem that has both land and water characteristics. Although wetlands are often covered in water or saturated to the surface, some are wet on