Spring scenery
Tiptoeing through the toothwort
With their cameras, nature-lovers try to capture the fleeting joys of spring.
Nothing is more exhilarating than the first days of spring, when the air practically vibrates with the pent-up vigor of growing things.
Warm sunlight filters down through budding forests, and the rich smell of humus wafts up from their floors. Then, amid the decaying leaves and grasses, we find the first spring ephemerals.
They gladden our hearts, those brave little blooms. But they come, and then they go.
Sugarbush safari
Running sap is cause for celebration in the maple forest.
Even if it looks like winter outside, you can count on maple trees to know otherwise.
In late February, their sap starts to run, and that's "the sweet good-bye of winter,'' writes naturalist John Burroughs.
In the awkward time between winter and spring, the promise of maple syrup also gives people a good reason to get outdoors and
into the woods.
Spring bird festivals
After a long winter, birders welcome return of feathered friends.
By April, the harbingers of spring are on the move.
"The spring migration is well underway!'' comes the report from Crex Meadows refuge, in northwest Wisconsin near Grantsburg. "Eagles and swans, Canada geese, robins, sparrows, sandhills cranes have arrived!''
Where there are birds, there are birders — and bird festivals. Those are especially nice for beginners, who don’t yet have the skills to find and identify birds. If there’s a bird-banding demonstration, don’t miss it; it’s a good chance to see identifying markings of a bird close-up.
Birding by rail
On Wisconsin's Chippewa River, a little train rolls into a bird-watcher's Eden.
If you don’t know a birder, you might think they have a severe case of attention-deficit disorder.
They tend to stare off into space. They often stop talking mid-sentence. It’s hard to finish conversations with them.
But their enthusiasm for nature is contagious. And in spring, birders know all the best places to go.
Wildflowers of the North Shore
On the shores of Lake Superior, delicate blooms mark the return of warmth.
In spring, not that many people go to the North Shore to see the flowers.
They’re small, and the rest of the scenery is big and distracting — roaring waterfalls, jagged cliffs and that mesmerizing inland sea that fills the horizon.
If you do look down, you’ll find them huddled in cracks on lava flows, tucked along hiking trails and in boggy patches along streams. They’re dainty, but many are fairly unusual — butterwort as well as bluebells, rock clematis along with columbine.
Out of the forest and into the frying pan
As days get warmer, mushroom hunters get ready to root out the wily morel.
Deep down, every morel hunter believes in divine providence.
There's nothing so providential as baskets overflowing with morels, and the taste is so divine hunters dream about it all winter. In spring, they offer a fervent prayer to the mushroom gods: May the fungus be among us.
Morels do taste heavenly. But it's the hunt that's so addictive, not the mushroom itself. For one thing, it's fun to find something for free that's so expensive in stores and restaurants, and it's fun to beat the odds by finding something so notoriously elusive.
Chasing spring wildflowers
When the Mississippi River Valley erupts into blooms, devotees rush to see them all.
In May, the woods are full of people on the hunt.
Some are stalking morel mushrooms. Others are trying to bag a turkey or spot a rare warbler.
The rest of us are content to chase wildflowers. For one thing, we’re guaranteed success.
Spring in Door County
On this Wisconsin peninsula, a vast array of wildflowers rewards those weary of winter.
Goldthread and gaywings. Bogbean and trailing arbutus. In Wisconsin's Door County, it's enough to make a naturalist hyperventilate.
Cherry blossoms and daffodils are the showiest spring flowers on this tourist playground between Lake Michigan and Green Bay. But it's the wildflowers, many of them rare, that provide the most joyous proof that spring has arrived.
On sandy ridges, the first flower spotted often is the once-common trailing arbutus, whose waxy white blossoms emerge in April.
Spring in full glory
For a piece of quiet, visit a state natural area.
One spring, I hit the nature-lover's jackpot, almost without trying.
Exploring a septet of Minnesota's scientific and natural areas, or SNAs, I found more pasque flowers in bloom than I'd ever
expected to see in a lifetime.
I saw a panorama of the Mississippi as the Dakota would have seen it 200 years ago. I walked under the budding canopies of old-growth forests and listened to choruses of courting frogs.
Pilgrimage to the Baraboo Hills
The sandy soil of central Wisconsin is a springboard for naturalists, past and present.
In its marshes and woods, John Muir first discovered the joys of wilderness. On its sandy plains, Aldo Leopold became a pioneer of land stewardship. On its meadows, two young ornithologists created a haven for cranes.
The natural world found some of its greatest allies on a swath of rolling, glaciated land in south-central Wisconsin. Muir
went on to found the Sierra Club and is known as a father of America’s national parks.
Leopold inspired legions with such books as “A Sand County Almanac.’’ George Archibald and Ron Sauey founded the International Crane Foundation.
10 great spring drives
When weather warms, the urge to hit the road is irresistible.
It's a beautiful spring day. The trees are budding, the birds are chirping. What do you do?
Road trip! Somehow, the call of the highway is especially strong in spring. We want to feel the wind on our face and see
something new and unusual.
Here are 10 of the best places to do it. For autumn, see Great fall drives.
Best of spring
It's coming, and there's not a minute to waste.
After a winter spent mostly indoors, most of us are itching to bust a move.
We want to take a spring drive, see fiddlehead ferns unfurl and surround ourselves with that delicate shade of chartreuse that seems to tint the air green.
We want to try out a new bike trail, find the mother lode of morels and watch colorfully attired folks dance in clogs or around a maypole.
Bird walks
In spring, a symphony of trills and chirps draws hikers into the woods.
In April, everything returns to the forest.
It's easy to see the ephemerals — false rue anemone, hepatica and trout lilies, swelling into a carpet of white — and the watercress that swirls in cold brooks. Tiny chartreuse leaves unfold from the tips of tree branches, and tightly furled fiddlehead ferns push up from the old brown fronds.
The spring breezes also bring in birds, but they're not as easy to see. Birds don't stay put, unlike flowers and trees, and
they defy identification by amateurs. It's a good guess that a flash of yellow is a warbler, but which kind —
chestnut-sided, Blackburnian, magnolia, Wilson's?
Itching for spring
It's coming, in all its glorious bounty. Here's what to watch for and where to go.
When the snow is gone, the fun begins.
Most of us would be happy to see something, anything, that’s green. But there’s no reason to wait for that before going outdoors.
This is the best time to hunt for agates on Great Lakes beaches, where winter storms have tossed up a new batch of rocks. If you wait until July, when most tourists arrive, they’ll be picked over.
© Beth Gauper, 2007 - 2012 all rights reserved
