Dress warmly, enjoy many signs of spring

Many people in Maine say, “We don’t have a spring.” We really do have a beautiful spring; the sun is strong, but the air is still cool. Keep your winter clothes on, and enjoy spring.

We cheered our first chipmunk of the season, under the bird feeder at the Fields Pond Audubon Center. Chipmunks generally stay underground all winter. Many people confuse red squirrels with chipmunks. Red squirrels are small like chipmunks, but red squirrels don’t have stripes on their backs, and red squirrels stay out all winter.

Woodchucks have been seen in the Bangor area, too. They hibernate all winter. When they show themselves to people in early spring, they are usually seen as roadkill. The males come out of their burrows and seek sleeping females in their own burrows. Alas, the male woodchucks are thinking only of one thing, and they don’t look out for cars.

Early spring is also the time that young muskrats leave their homes of grasses, sedges and cattails and go overland to a new marsh. When they cross a road, sometimes they make it, and sometimes not. I saw one on the road recently.

Skunks are out now, too. These animals are signs of spring. Slow down and watch out for them on the roads.

Several turkey vultures were spotted over the Kenduskeag Stream. Perhaps they were sustained by roadkill all the way north.

I am always watching for new spring birds. I found two red-winged blackbirds in Orono last week and it made my day.

I drove by a very large field, mostly still covered with snow, but patches of brown, matted grass were showing. I thought, this would be a perfect place for a killdeer, one of my favorite signs of spring.

The killdeer is a bird that makes its nest on the ground; it is well-known for its “broken wing” trick that lures a fox away from its nest or young. It gets its odd name for its call to the rhythm of “killdeer, killdeer.”

I stopped and scoured every brown patch on that field with my binoculars for a killdeer, but there was none. It was a very cold day. Maybe someone will see a killdeer next week.

Maine geologist Joe Kelley will give an illustrated talk about the destruction and possible reconstruction of New Orleans at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at Fields Pond Audubon Center. An admission fee of $6 a person benefits the center.

For information about Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.