Knock Knock
Who's there?
Spring.
I don't think so. The temperatures are still in the teens and this morning it snowed again. But a few days ago, something happened that proved otherwise.
The farm is set at the end of a long driveway in rural Pennsylvania. I do have neighbors; they are at a distance that requires several minutes of walking or a few minutes of driving. Privacy is the norm. Few people drive back the lane unannounced. So when one morning at the crack of dawn I heard someone knocking at my front door I immediately sat up in bed jolted awake by the unexpected intrusion. Grabbing my phone I searched for messages and missed calls by my close closest neighbors. Nothing.
Now I was wondering what was going on. An emergency perhaps? Throwing on a flannel robe and heading to the front door I looked for telltale flashing red and blue lights from emergency vehicles, but there were none to be seen. It was even more perplexing as there was no one at my front door. Had I dreamt the knocking? But before I could return to the warmth of my bed I heard it again, only this time it was coming from another porch.
Knock knock knock.
Moving through the house I could see the porch through the windows and there was no one there. Pulling the curtain aside and looking through the sliding glass door I came face-to-face with a Pileated Woodpecker having breakfast. It was tearing into the insect egg casings that had been deposited on the wooden porch beams last fall.
Now, if you’ve never seen a Pileated Woodpecker up close, these things are huge. They are the largest of the woodpecker species, weighing in at nearly a pound and as big as a crow. It is the punk rocker of the bird world with a black body, white stripes, and a brilliant red head. While these birds are year round woodland residents, it is only at the tail end of winter they brazenly raid suet feeders and begin foraging for food in the open.
The woodpecker’s presence was like a switch had been flipped and suddenly there were Red Belly woodpeckers, starlings, meadowlarks, and sparrows all filling the muted silence. Despite none of the four-legged animals here on the farm blowing their winter coats as of yet, there are signs of impending spring in the bird life. Large flocks of migrating Canada geese, the familiar call of the Killdeer.
Other sounds of impending spring aren’t so natural. Neighbors who plant row crops are in the fields drilling seeds. Alfalfa, wheat, and oats can be planted with out first tilling the soil by using a seed drill which is a piece of equipment towed behind a tractor that plants small seeds at a specific depth in closely spaced rows four to six inches apart. In a few months, those same farmers will pull out their planter which is another piece of equipment that plants larger seeds like corn and soybean which are spaced in rows 20 to 40 inches apart.
My notes on the calendar tell me that this week last year the spring peepers came out. For those of you who don’t know, peepers are actually small chorus frogs (Pseudacris crucifer) that emerge when the night temperatures reach a certain point and emit a high-pitched croak to attract a mate. I’ve got my fire pit prepared for their emergence. My annual ritual is to listen to the first peepers of the year while roasting marshmallows and stargazing. Judging from the weather report, I won’t be eating s’mores anytime soon and will be wearing insulated coveralls to market for a few more weeks.
Speaking of the night sky, don’t forget to look up this week and view all seven planets in alignment. This isn’t a spring thing, but a rare treat especially for those of us addicted to our Sky Tonight app.