February Nature Observation

February Nature Observation

Emilia Officer

Student Submission

Set to appear in the May 2022 edition

I lay on the pine needles, hearing only my calm rhythmic breaths and the scraping of branches against each other. The sky is covered by a sheet of gray clouds, they hide the Sun’s warmth from the earth. But the Sun still found her way, tiny cracks allowed for her warm rays to flow in. Green grass is starting to sprout out from the earth, dandelions too. I try to find a bird in the trees but am only met with silence.

Where are you? The birds that once sang songs of cheer are now gone and the lands are silent in their absence.

The bird feeders are filled but not a single bird has eaten. In the warmer days birds of all sizes would flock to get the fresh seeds. Their trills would ring in the forest, attracting more to come.

Only deer are brave enough to travel in this cold bitter time. Their hunger drives them on as food gets scarcer, sometimes I even see them steal the food from the bird feeders. They eat every green grass that sprouts out. I often think they are like wild lawnmowers, except they much prefer to go for your precious flowers more than the nasy weeds or luscious grass. Any flower you may be growing outside you will have to say goodbye to, because it will be snatched and only a stem is left.

In the silence I hear a sound of little claws scraping against bark.

It was…

A squirrel!

It ran down the tree with confidence, only stopping to sniff and scan the area for threats. As the little critter landed it sped over the landscape until it stopped all of a sudden. It looked around before getting to work on uncovering its stash of acorns. As it finished its work, the squirrel sped off.

Even though the winter is not over yet, life is still around me. Spring is not here, but the forest is starting to awaken. Soon the woods will be flourishing with life.

Soon.