SIGNS OF SPRING: Because of this almost never-ending winter, there hasn’t been the usual flow of reports of horticultural awakenings we expect this time of year, but a few are starting to filter in.
Donald J. Comes of Norwich Township, a master gardener who knows more than a few things about horticulture, phoned Thursday to give us a report on a few things he’s noticed lately on his travels.
On Rose Hill Avenue in Smethport, he noticed some blue crocuses blooming and in Coudersport, near the Episcopal Church, he said there was a huge clump of winter aconite in bloom.
And in Port Allegany near the library, Donald said, there are a lot of snow drops coming up.
Port Allegany must be having an earlier spring that most of our environs. That town was the point of origin for the pussy willows that were dropped off at our office nearly two weeks ago by Andy Heffner, and he told us he saw his first woodchuck of the year just off Two Mile Road about a week ago.
He said the chucks usually don’t come out much until late April to munch on fresh grass and alfalfa. This specimen, Andy said, was a big one who must have gotten hungry early.
He also found a woolly worm — alive — already this year. We usually make a big deal about reading woolly worms in the fall to predict the severity of the coming winter.
Andy asked, rhetorically we think, “If you find a woolly worm in the spring, does it predict the summer?”
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FISH STORIES: Just before deer season last fall, we asked readers to share their favorite hunting stories, and we got some classics. We can imagine that there are some fishing stories out there that deserve telling as to a wider audience than one can gather on a creek bank or the after-fishing watering hole.
If you have one, email it to m.ivancic@bradfordera.com or give ’Round the Square a call at 362-6531.
As with all fish tales, of course, we’ll believe anything you tell us.
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QUACKERS: Hal Harmon told us earlier this week that the ponds and wetlands along Interstate 86 are teeming with ducks and Canada geese, some of them probably on their way to breeding grounds farther north.
He spotted one variety, though, that he hadn’t seen before that he thinks is a yellow mute swan, from what he could glean from his bird guide.
