Nature Blog April 2024
By Nina Mollicone
Spring has sprung in the Augusta Nature Education Center. Or, not. It depends on which day you go for a walk. For a few weeks last month, it looked like we were well into spring and looking forward to “The Big Night,” the night the frogs and salamanders make their way en masse to their breeding grounds. I went to an excellent presentation on April 1st about “The Big Night,” put on by Kennebec Land Trust and Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed. The conditions need to be just right for the amphibian migration. The ground needs to be thawed and free of most of the snow, it needs to be rainy, and the temperature at night needs to be above 40 degrees F. For more information about this, check out https://www.vernalpools.me/big-night/. Although, the migration has started in Southern Maine, in Augusta, it has been delayed by the two big snow storms we have had in the last 2 weeks. Kennebec Land Trust is planning a “Big Night” event when the conditions are just right. This is open to folks interested in participating. For more information on this, check out www.tklt.org.
Meanwhile, back at the Augusta Nature Education Center, winter has given way to spring, then back to winter, then spring, then winter, again. What crazy weather! Winter was very beautiful. I had some very nice snowshoeing and x-country skiing ambles over the winter. All the nature center can be accessed by snowshoe. As far as x-country skiing, I stick to the mostly flat trails. Whitney Brook trail is the best for skiing. Jordan Farm field and the Jordan Farm alternate trail can also be skied but do have a couple hills that I needed to side step down. Perhaps the best parts of nature during the winter are the patterns made from the snow on the trees and rocks. One day, when the sky was gray and overcast, the landscape in the center seemed to be in grayscale rather than in color. It was quite a remarkable to experience.
Despite the beauty of nature in the winter, I am not sad to see the snow and cold gone. I am not a cold weather person. I would not mind the snow if the temperature was in the 70s. That is unlikely to happen. For years, I have said that when I retire, I will summer in Maine and winter in Florida. That is unlikely to happen, too. So, I make the best of it, trying to get outside in nature as much as I can in the ways I am able.
I went for a walk at Jordan Farm before this latest foot deep snow fall. I was disappointed that there were no ducks in Jordan Farm Quarry Pond. A woman who was walking by said that the ducks had been there. So, I will try again to see them another day. I did find the Skunk Cabbage in full bloom. Beautiful! I have never seen it in full bloom before. Rather like, as a friend said, “Alien, spring brood…,” it does look rather otherworldly. I did not make it before the snow to see if the 2nd flower that opens in the spring was out, yet, or not. That is Colt’s Foot. I usually find it on Whitney Brook trail on the way to the Lily Pond. The same friend said the Colt’s Foot was in bloom along the Rail Trail already. Thus, the Lily Pond, to look for the Colt’s Foot, will be my next expedition when the snow melts.
On a sad note, the Augusta Nature Club lost a dedicated member and past president last week, Heidi Munro. She was an active member of both Augusta Nature Club and Kennebec Valley Garden Club and will be very much missed. We send our deepest condolences to her family.
Don’t get discouraged. Spring will come to stay. By mid-May, the leaves will pop out seemingly overnight. The spring walk in the nature center will be on May 15th, 2024. The walk will be led by naturalists Gaby Howard and Beth Brooke. Meet at the Cony Vo-Tech School, the first parking lot, where the greenhouse was, at 10:00 a.m. rain or shine. For more information, call Augusta Nature Club president, Marie Erskine, at 207-549-5474, or via e-mail at [email protected]. Check out our events page for other 2024 Augusta Nature Club meetings, fieldtrips, and events. We hope you will join us.