March 2023
Pacific Northwest
At long last, spring has arrived in the PNW islands, marked as much by temperature as light. Our unusually cold temps, especially at night over these past couple of months, delayed some spring nature events this year, like the start of chorus frogs singing. Phenology FOY observations over the years can track that. Here are a few recent FOYs in my neighborhood.
Satinflower: the first few were out when I went by on March 17, meaning they’d opened up a few days earlier. Satinflowers usually bloom in late February.
First native perennial wildflower to bloom in spring. Usually the bluff is greener in March but our rainfall has been unusually low since the beginning of the year.
Botanist Leslie Haskin in Wild Flowers of the Pacific Coast. describes the Satinflowers delightfully: “in this breezy aerie starry blossoms dance and flutter like purple butterflies.”
SATIN FLOWER (DOUGLAS’ GRASSWIDOW)
Red- flowering currant, a native deciduous shrub, first bloomed March 14, about two weeks late.
Ribes sanguineum on the bluff
Bumblebee: March 16. They tend to show up at about the time the currants bloom, so yeah, late too.
Not my photo, but a bumblebee on Ribes sanguineum
Rufous hummingbird: March 18
These hummers spend the summer here for breeding season. This year’s arrival is a few days later than they historically arrived on average (mid March) until about twenty years ago when their arrival started edging earlier (now they typically arrive first or second week of March, except this year).
The Rufouses typically arrive as the Ribes bloom.
Bucking the trend….. chippies!
Townsend’s chipmunks, who den all winter, first appeared out and about on March 1, earlier than usual by a week or two.
Checking out fallen seed under the sunflower seed feeder
What’s blooming or awakening where you live, and how does that compare with your phenology observations from previous years?
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Warming in the PacificNorthwest islands. Temps in low 50s! Mixed sun and cloud, with a light breeze.
WHAT’S UP IN NATURE IN YOUR BACKYARD?
