Five Things I Like About Winter

    As a wild plant enthusiast, winter stands as a downtime with few redeeming qualities. But there are five things I like about winter. These are:

1.  Winter doesn’t last forever. 
2.  There are only four weeks left of winter.
3.  Winter will soon be over.
4. Late winter equals early spring.
5. Winter has lost the battle and spring may come early, at least according to Pauxatawny      Phil, the weather-predicting groundhog. 

​    Okay, these sound redundant. But when cooped up inside with no place to go and nothing to do except feed the woodstove, redundancy becomes the norm. 
    By now, you see that I really don’t care much for winter, despite the deceptive title for this blog entry. I just did that to gain your attention. But now, since we are nearing mid-February, the light at the end of the cold, dark tunnel has begun to shine. Soon, we’ll see tangible signs of spring. 

Oft mistaken for dandelions, coltsfoot will frequently bloom long before dandelions even consider showing themselves, signaling the beginning of spring.

​For instance, some years see coltsfoot blooming by late February. This is on a south-facing hillside near a tidal river. Interestingly, some people are fooled by coltsfoot’s bright, yellow blossoms and conclude that that broad swath of yellow is from dandelions. But dandelions won’t even think about blooming until at least late April. 

So coltsfoot really stands as the plant world’s truest harbinger of spring. ​

    ​We are seeing robins. It makes little difference that these are coastal robins, the ones that remain in Maine all winter. To spring-thirsty people like me, robins are robins and when they come hippity-hopping, they boost the spirit. And sometimes that’s what counts most. 

Though coastal robins remain in Maine all winter long, their presence reminds one that spring is on its way.

    In another sign of spring, a friend told me that yesterday, he saw a flock of Canada geese flying north. It’s easy to assume that these are returning from the south but that’s just not so. It can’t be, because our lakes and ponds are all frozen solid. These geese must be going from one protected Penobscot Bay harbor to another. The real deal will happen soon, though, and it’s only a matter of weeks before we will see those long, ragged ‘Vs’ of migrating geese and hear their echo-chamber chorus of honking. 
    And despite snow, freezing rain and cold temperatures, the sun rises higher in the sky with each passing day. Soon, the deep slant of the winter sun will give way to our star casting a more direct light, not so offensive to drivers and more conducive to starting new plants on windowsills. 
    For me at least, winter takes a beating when people begin calling and asking me to do wild-plant presentations come spring. Just discussing spring, wild plants and an end to winter sets my spirit soaring. 
    Finally, and there’s no denying it, we are on the downslope, winter has passed its prime and spring, with every wonderful thing that accompanies it, will soon arrive. Now that’s what I really like about winter. 

Tom Seymour, Maine writer and naturalist, has written over a dozen titles including: Getting Your Big Fish: Trolling Maine Waters, Wild Plants of Maine: A Useful Guide, Forager’s Notebook, Wild Critters of Maine: Everyday Encounters, and Hidden World Revealed: Musings of a Maine Naturalist from Just Write Books LLC, Topsham, Maine. Seymour has also written a multitude of monthly features including his popular “Maine Wildlife” for The Maine Sportsman Magazine.