One week to beginning of morning robin chorus
The stormy March is come at last
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies.
- William Cullen Bryant
In the Sky
The earliest Morning Star is Mars, rising in Capricorn before Venus, the brightest Morning Star, which accompanies Aquarius, along with Saturn. Jupiter in Aries is the Evening Star in the west throughout March.
Early in the month, Deep Winter’s Orion has moved off to the west by 10 p.m., and Corvus, May’s corn and soybean planting constellation, appears on the horizon. Spica, which will be centered in the southern sky as peak planting ends this spring, emerges from the east. June’s Corona Borealis follows it.
Phases of the Opossum Mating Moon, Termite Migration Moon
March 3: The Opossum Mating Moon enters its final quarter.
March 10: The Termite Migration Moon is new.
March 17: The moon enters its second quarter.
March 25: The moon is full.
Weather Trends
The cold front that ends the month of February is usually gentler than the Feb. 24 front, and its transit often signals the end of Snowdrop Winter. Clear skies are a hallmark of this front’s arrival, and bright conditions usually follow on the 28th. March 3 marks another major pivot point in the possibilities of spring: For the first time all year, there is a 10 percent chance for a high in the 70s, and those odds continue, with only a few exceptions, until the 24th, when they double.
Major March weather systems usually cross the Mississippi River on March 2, 5 (usually the most severe front of the month), 9 (ordinarily followed by quite mild temperatures), 14, 19 (frequently the second-coldest front of March), 24 (often followed by the best weather so far in the year) and 29. Major storms are most likely to occur on the days between March 7 and 14, between March 19 and 25. New moon, combined with lunar perigee on March 10 will favor an early March storm, and, full moon on March 25 will chill the second half of the month
The Natural Calendar
Great flocks of starlings and grackles move across the nation as February comes to an end. And from now on, average temperatures rise at their spring and early summer rate, one degree every three days.
The blossoming of the standard crocus bears witnesses to the blooming of weedy henbit in the garden, the increasing flow of maple sap, the full emergence of pussy willows, the appearance of woolly bear caterpillars, the full bloom of the snow trillium along the rivers, the final bloom of skunk cabbage, the time for killdeer and to arrive from the South and for juncos to depart for the North.
Lupine leaves push out of the mulch, and the earliest blue squills open. Groundhogs dig up the hillsides, making new dens. Day lily spears are two inches high. Red-tailed hawks, horned grebes, common snipes, all types of gulls and black ducks migrate across the region. When lawn grown begins, then soil temperatures are rising through the 40s. Red peony stalks, barely visible a few weeks ago, have pushed up above the mulch.
Countdown to Spring
■ A few days to crocus season and owl hatching time and woodcock mating time
■ One week to the beginning of the morning robin chorus before sunrise.
■ Two weeks to daffodil season and silver maple blooming season and the first golden goldfinches.
■ Three weeks to tulip season and the first wave of blooming woodland wildflowers and the first butterflies
■ Four weeks until golden forsythia blooms and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves and the lawn is long enough to cut
■ Five weeks until American toads sing their mating songs in the dark and corn planting time begins
■ Six weeks until the Great Dandelion and Violet Bloom and the peak of wildflower season begin
■ Seven weeks until all the fruit trees flower
■ Eight weeks to the first rhubarb pie
■ Nine weeks to the great warbler migration through the Lower Midwest
■ Ten weeks to the first cricket song of late spring
In the Field and Garden
Mites, scale, and aphid eggs will mature quickly when the temperatures climb above 60 degrees. The insects will be more easily controlled by dormant oil spray the closer they are to hatching. Complete the spraying when the temperature is expected to stay above 40 for 24 hours. Do late pruning on colder afternoons. Spread fertilizer.
The very earliest bulbs, the snowdrops, the snow crocus and the aconites, have already bloomed in the sunniest microclimates. Now it is time for the larger, brighter standard crocus and the small spring iris, the Iris reticulata, to flower.
It’s not too early to feed your bulbs with liquid fertilizer before major blooming time begins.
Mares show signs of estrus as the days grow longer. When the land is ready, worm livestock before turning them out to pasture.
Barometric changes can trigger flare-ups of arthritis in people and also in your pets and livestock. Add paprika mixed in with molasses if you think an animal is suffering from joint pain.
Peak Activity Times for Creatures
When the Moon is above the continental United States, creatures are typically most active. The second-most-active time occurs when the Moon is below the Earth. Activity is likely to increase at new moon and full moon and at perigee (when the Moon is closest to Earth), especially as the barometer falls in advance of cold fronts near those dates.
Date Best Second-Best
March 1-2: Midnight to Dawn Afternoons
March 3-9: Mornings Evenings
March 10-16: Afternoons Middle of the Night
March 17-24: Evenings. Mornings
March 25-31: Midnight to Dawn Afternoons
Journal
It’s coming into full Early Spring now, and the bird chorus has begun to dominate the time of first light. Cardinals call half an hour before dawn, then the doves.
The robin mating chorus will soon dominate the early mornings.
For so many years, I never used to pay attention to when the birds sang. I wasn’t paying attention to the seasons either and I took them for granted. And so the melodies of spring seemed random, and, out of context.
That discouraged me from following the changes in climate and the activities of birds and other mammals. I was disconnected from the world around me until I finally began to watch and listen and keep track of what was happening.
That new awareness broke my disconnection. I stopped thinking of things as random or out of place. I gradually found that everything has a place. The more I paid attention, the more I felt that I had a place, too.
Once I connected just a few basic signs in nature, then I could begin to imagine my location and time more clearly, and I could finally imagine my place within that habitat, and now more and more as I grow into that world, it is starting to feel like home.