Small mammals mate in anticipation of milder weather

We are born and placed among wonders and surrounded by them, so that to whatever object the eye first turns, the same is wonderful and full of wonders, if only we will examine it for a while.

— John de Dondis, 14th century

In the sky

The Cardinal Mating Moon waxes through apogee (its position farthest from Earth on February 4 and becomes full at 1:30 p.m. on the 5th. Creatures should be most active around midnight with the moon overhead, or at midday with the moon below the region. Do your fishing at those times, especially as the barometer drops in advance of the cold front due in February’s first week.

The sun: By Feb. 8, the sun reaches more than 30% of the way to spring equinox.

The planets: Moving retrograde into Aquarius, Venus and Saturn remain the evening stars.

The stars: After dark, the Big Dipper lies in the eastern sky this week. Watch it turn counterclockwise throughout the night, moving overhead by 2 a.m. and into the far west before sunrise.

Weather trends

The full moon on Feb. 5 is likely to put an end to the Groundhog Day thaw that often characterizes the early days of February. And Feb. 3 is one of the February days most likely to bring dangerous storms to the Ohio Valley and tornadoes to the South.

The natural calendar

The seasonal clock has advanced by the span of two moons since the last leaves fell to the ground. The first weeds and wildflowers were already rising slowly through December and January: hemlock, lamium, garlic mustard, creeping Charlie, sweet rockets, sweet Cicely, dock, skunk cabbage, wood mint, watercress, mouse-eared chickweed. Now they lie in wait for the strongest thaws. The tips of snowdrops and snow crocus have emerged; they are waiting, too.

Cardinals have begun to sing all day. Small mammals continue to mate in anticipation of milder weather during spring birthing time. Deer gather throughout the month to feed in herds. Turkeys are flocking now; they will disband and scatter into smaller family groups by April. Bees come looking for skunk cabbage when the sun is out and temperatures warm to 50 degrees.

Field and garden

Continue frost-seeding of pastures, also the seeding of bedding plants and hardy vegetables under lights. Be ready for possible drought by making sure your soil has sufficient potassium and phosphorus. Prepare flats for more planting at new moon on February 20.

Then after full moon, take care of livestock: trim hooves, slaughter, worm, and treat for external parasites. Also under the dark moon, treat ash, bittersweet, fir, elm, flowering fruit trees, hawthorn, juniper, lilac, linden, maple, oak, pine, poplar, spruce, sweet gum, tulip tree, and willow for scales and mites.

If you have pregnant sheep or goats, the Moon’s third quarter (the week after full Moon), is the lunar period most likely to bring early birthing. ‘ ‘

Mind and body

The pollen season, which began with the pollination of pine trees, now intensifies across the South with the blooming of mountain cedar, acacia, smooth alder, bald cypress, American elm, red maple, white poplar and black willow. Bluegrass, which stopped flowering in midsummer, revives and starts its seeding cycle. When warm Gulf winds bring thaws across the North, all this pollen comes along, too.

Journal

The night has shortened by 90 minutes through the space of the last 60 days, and the speed of the change reaches real spring levels along the 40th Parallel, the remaining gain of 70 minutes occurring between February 18 and equinox. The sun, which took 60 days to travel the first half of the way to equinox, suddenly doubles its speed, completing the second half of the journey in only 32 days.

On the star clock of the night, the Big Dipper, which lay due east of Polaris at 10:00 p.m. in late December, now intrudes deep overhead, well into the southeast. Orion, which filled the eastern sky before midnight at solstice, has shifted far into the southwest. Procyon is now the brightest star in the high south, not Sirius.

Weather statistics follow the sun and the stars. The average temperature of 26 degrees, which held through most of January, has climbed four degrees in the past 20 days. In the next four weeks, the average reaches its full springtime stride of one degree every three days, coming up 11 degrees to 41 by equinox.

These numbers and all of the others favor April over January. The February 15th cold front was the last of winter’s 15 major high-pressure systems. From now on, the thaws, which often begin with highs in the 50s near Groundhog

Day, steadily build momentum, the Early Spring thaws of February 18th, February 22nd, March 1st, March 5th, March 11th, and March 25th pushing and pushing until the full tide of wildflowers moves across the land.

Countdown to spring

■ Two weeks until the first redwinged blackbirds arrive

■ Three weeks to the first snowdrop bloom and the official start of early spring – a time when maple sap season can begin at any moment

■ Four weeks to major pussy willow emerging season, to crocus season and owl hatching time

■ Five weeks to the beginning of the morning robin chorus before sunrise

■ Six weeks to daffodil season and silver maple blooming season

■ Seven weeks to tulip season and the earliest wave of blooming woodland wildflowers

■ Eight weeks until golden forsythia blooms and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves and the lawn is long enough to cut

■ Nine weeks until the peak of Middle Spring wildflowers in the woods

■ Ten weeks until the great dandelion and violet bloom in your lawn