Spring is Here !

   Yes maple syrup time. Some years the maple sap begins to rise in February, but more often it waits for March. It flows best when days are mild, in the 40's and 50's, and when nights are still frosty.
 It's worth noting that the system for grading maple syrup- a classification that rates syrups on color and strength of flavors-recently was updated to make the U.S. and Canadian systems consistent. The previous used "Fancy" and" Grade A" to indicate syrups with lighter flavors and colors, while the "Grade B" was darker and more robust.
  Under the new system, everything is Grade A, but descriptions have been added. The lightest group is now "Grade A: golden color with a delicate taste" and the darkest is "Grade A: very dark with a strong taste. Many people prefer a lighter syrup on pancakes and waffles, but chefs will go with the darker more robust when cooking with it or using it with savory foods.
 The sap may start in a warm spell, stop if the days turn cold, then starts again. Old-time sugarmen think snow on the ground helps. I know when the sap flow starts by watching the gray squirrels. They seem to know instinctively, go into the maples, nip off a few twigs, and lap the sap as it oozes. Then the chickadees also watch the squirrels and then drink at the taps' when the squirrels are away.
   Geese sometimes fly north now. They fly high and their gabble is like the distant barking of dogs. If they fly in fairly regular V's they usually are Canadian geese; if in loose, wavery V's or long, wavy lines they more are likely are the snow geese. Snow geese gather by the thousands and are a famous sight, Spring and Fall, at Fortescue, New Jersey, and Cap Tourments, Quebec.

 Mergansers appear on local rivers, both the American and the hooded mergansers. The males, with lots of snowy white on them, are eye-catching; their heads are green, their beaks are orange-red. The females are drab in grays and browns with only a little white on their sides. Soon after the mergansers come the ducks, black ducks first, then the wood ducks, then our mallards.
 Last week our pair of mallards returned to our vernal pond for the 34th consecutive season and lifted my spirits up naturally. Our children and grand children have all fed them. The mallards mate for life. Every spring they mate, lay the eggs, fight off the raccoons, domestic cats and dogs, hawks, skunks, fisher, coyotes, snakes and drought to beat the odds of raising a brood.
 Skunk cabbage blooms in the bogs; the flower has a carrion odor. Now and then someone finds hepatica in bloom, but I never find them till April. In a very early Spring, anemones may bloom in March; I look for them in damp, leafmoldy places at the edge of the woods.
 Birch catkins fatten around the time of the Equinox. And the pussy willows, the male catkins on the willow, appear.

40 gallons sap to make one gallon of Maple Syrup.