March 2025 Kids Corner
from the Gale River Cooperative Preschool
Springtime(ing) in Nature
If you’re tired of winter you’re probably excited for the first day of spring at the end of the month! Spring is an exciting time of year. Trees get new leaves, flowers bloom, animals come out of hibernation, baby animals are born, and we get to enjoy more sunshine and a break from the cold!
Humans use the vernal equinox to mark the official first day of spring. The vernal equinox is one of two days in the Earth’s orbit around the sun when day and night are just about equal. This year the vernal equinox is on March 20th.
For us the first day of spring is pretty simple. We mark it on the calendar and that’s that. One day it's winter, the next it's spring. But plants and animals don’t use calendars with days and weeks neatly laid out in rows. In nature spring doesn’t start on one specific day. Plants and animals change their behavior in spring in response to their changing environment, and different plants and animals start their “spring activities” at different times.
🛑STOP! If you didn’t have the first day of spring marked on a calendar 🛑
how would you decide when spring starts? Discuss your answer before continuing.
Can Groundhogs Predict Spring?
Have you heard of Groundhog Day? It’s a famous tradition that happens every year on February 2nd in a town called Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania. A groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil is brought out of his burrow in front of a huge group of people. The story goes that if he sees his shadow we’ll have six more weeks of winter and if he doesn’t we’ll have an early spring. (In 2025 Phil did see his shadow predicting a longer winter.)
Was looking for shadows one of your answers to the question above? Probably not! In reality, Punxsutawney Phil isn’t a great judge of when spring will come. His “predictions” using his shadow are only right about 40% of the time, but Groundhog Day is a fun tradition.
Temperature
You probably did include temperature in your definition of spring. Warmer weather is a sign that winter is ending. Lots of animals, (including groundhogs other than Punxsutawney Phil) come out of hibernation when temperatures warm up.
Ladybugs and mayflies are two creatures that use temperature as their main sign of spring. Adult ladybugs hibernate in large groups and come out when the temperatures are warm enough.
Warming water temperatures are the most important sign of spring for Mayflies. Mayfly eggs spend all winter underwater. When the water temperature gets warm enough, the nymphs hatch and eventually make their way to the surface in their final mayfly form.
Day Length
Longer days are also a welcome sign of spring. Migrating songbirds have special light receptors in their brains that keep track of daylight hours. When the days get long enough, the songbirds’ bodies know it's spring. They eat more, build up their flying muscles, grow new feathers, and get ready to fly back north.
Day Length and Temperature
Many trees use a combination of day length and temperature to “decide” when to open their new leaves. Using both of these conditions can help protect trees by preventing new leaves from coming out too early. For example, if there is a stretch of unusually warm weather in late winter, trees that rely on day length and temperature will hold off on sending out new leaves because even though it’s warm, the days aren’t long enough yet. This way their leaves won’t come out and then freeze when temperatures go back down.
Tricky Timing
Spring can be a tricky time for animals! Since different plants and animals respond to different temperature and light conditions spring food sources can be unpredictable. For example, insects are an important source of food for migratory birds. Since migratory birds time their travel based on day length, but many insects time their spring emergence based on temperature, there can be a mismatch between when birds need food and when it’s available. If the birds return when the days are longer but the weather is still cold, the insects they rely on might not have hatched yet. If there is an early spring, many of the insects may already be gone (either eaten by other creatures or already through their life cycle) by the time the birds arrive.
Spring and Climate Change
Mismatches between when certain species “expect” spring and when temperatures actually warm up is a big concern for scientists studying climate change. As our climate warms, spring temperatures will likely come earlier and earlier. Scientists worry that migratory birds and native tree species, among others, might have a hard time adapting to these changes.
Your Turn
For this activity you’ll need
Bubbles
A timer
A pen and paper (optional)
A grown up or friend to play the game with
In this activity you’re going to pretend to be a migratory bird coming back to New Hampshire for the spring. You’ve flown many many miles and you’re hungry! The bubbles represent insects. (Many insects that birds eat only live a short time.) Your goal is to pop as many bubbles as you can in 30 seconds, representing catching and eating insects as a bird.
Rounds 1&2: Stand next to your grown-up/partner as they blow as many bubbles as they can. “Catch” (pop) as many as you can and count as you go. Keep track of how many bubbles you pop each round.
Rounds 3&4: This time you’ll be a bird that arrives “late” in the spring. Move far enough away from your grown up/partner that you’ll need to run for 10 seconds or so to get to the bubbles. When your grown up starts the 30 second timer, run to the bubbles and pop as many as you can.
Rounds 5&6: This time you’ll be a bird who arrives too “early” for spring. If birds arrive before their food comes out in spring they’ll be very hungry. You’ll stand next to your grown up, but this time you have to catch all your bubbles on one leg because everything is harder when you’re hungry!
How many bubbles did you catch each round? How would you explain to a friend why it’s important that animals come out or come back at the “right” time in the spring?
Photos in order of appearance
- https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5346150
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Punxsutawney_Phil_2018_(cropped).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ladybird.jpg
- [[File:Adulto Ephemeroptera.jpg|thumb|Adulto Ephemeroptera]]
- [[File:Turdus-migratorius-002.jpg|American Robin]]
- [[File:House Wren eating a moth, Minneapolis, Minnesota.jpg|Song bird eating moth]]
Sources
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-birds-know-when-to-migrate/
Thanks to our partner, the Gale River Cooperative Preschool in Bethlehem, for helping our area parents get kiddos outside for fun no matter the time of year.
