Associating birds with change of seasons
Published 7:06 pm Sunday, February 18, 2018
<p class="p1">To me, nature’s wildlife continues to have a say about the beginning of the seasons of the year, although there may have been some slip-ups at times. </p><p class="p1">Last Monday large flocks of robins were scrambling for food on the Mallard Cove golf course.</p><p class="p1">And that was a day when the course had been pelted with rain, the temperature was in the low 40s and wind was a strong 10-12 knots out of the northeast.</p><p class="p1">My thinking has always been that the appearance of robins means spring is on its way.</p><p class="p1">Even though I didn’t think it that day, they just might be right this year.</p><p class="p1">On Wednesday we did have a break and an even stronger crack on Thursday. Sunshine and short sleeves with temps in the 70s and the long-range forecast for the rest of the month and into April is for temperatures in the 70s almost every day.</p><p class="p2">l</p><p class="p1">Two other birds I also associate with the coming of seasons are geese for the beginning of fall and sandhill cranes for the start of winter.</p><p class="p1">I recall the first honk from a goose I heard last year. It was Oct. 18, the week of homecoming for McNeese State.</p><p class="p1">I take my dog Charley for a daily walk, usually late in the afternoon or just about dark. We have a 2-mile trek I lay out from my house that starts by the Cowboy Stadium east parking lot, goes in front of the McNeese athletic department and around the west parking lot, passing on the east side of the alumni center, wrapping around the baseball parking lot and then back home.</p><p class="p1">It was just about dark when I first caught that unmistakable sound. Charley heard it at the same time and she came to a halt.</p><p class="p1">This she does all the time.</p><p class="p1">Charley is a 2-year-old part yellow lab and takes note of every sound. If it’s one she has not heard before she will stop her walk, sit down and stare in the direction from which it came.</p><p class="p1">This time she was looking up.</p><p class="p1">We couldn’t see any geese because they were above the clouds, but we could hear them. Soon they passed on, Charley got back up and we continued.</p><p class="p1">That was the middle of October. Temperatures that month went from the high 70s in the days to the 50s at night. In November it would drop into the 50s in the afternoon and night.</p><p class="p1">Goose season began on Nov. 4 and most hunters agreed that it turned out to be one of the better ones.</p><p class="p2">l</p><p class="p1">As for the sandhill cranes, Harvey Kieffer sent in the first word that the cranes had arrived in early January. They probably had been in earlier than that and brought in the cold icy weather of late December and early January with them.</p><p class="p1">Kieffer said he saw a large flock of the cranes south of Lionel DeRouen Road off La. 27 in Bell City.</p><p class="p1">They were still there a week ago and some were also seen in fields off Ward Line Road and La. 397.</p><p class="p1">They brought in our winter and some will probably begin taking off next month headed to Canada and Alaska with the rest to follow.</p><p class="p1">If you’re wanting to go out and see them, try those areas. You can pass them up if they are far off the road. But, if you see a patch of gray, that’s probably one with its head down feeding.</p><p class="p1">See one, you’ll see more.</p>
