February antidote

[Tom Wilberding]

It’s been observed that February is the slowest birding month in Colorado.. What to do? Some travel to Florida, Texas, or Arizona for a birding fix, others to Minnesota to see winter birds. If you can’t get away, it helps to simply think of spring. Here are three books about the slow seasonal turn from winter to spring.

Prairie Spring by Pete Dunne. His four month journey from winter to spring occurs in Colorado, starting at Crow Valley on February 2, Groundhog Day, 15 below zero.

North with the Spring by Edwin Way Teale. He and his wife start their winter to spring birding adventure in South Florida at the Everglades, and drive slowly up with spring to New England. BTW, If you simply want to savor winter, Teale’s Wandering Through Winter:is also very good.

Spring in Washington by Louis Halle. This winter to spring journey occurs in Washington, D.C.  Written by a State Department official during World War II, it is an escape to the real world of nature and man. “To snatch the passing moment and examine it for eternity is the noblest of occupations,” writes Halle. Tour guide Victor Emmanuel lives in Texas, but reads this book every spring.

How to glimpse spring in February in Colorado? Rather than head out on a warm, dry day, maybe better to head out the day after a snowfall, about 10 am. The birds are hungry, out and about. I heard a red-wing blackbird’s conk-eree this morning. Tonight, back to winter.

 

Tom Wilberding

Littleton, CO