We're not out of the woods yet

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com

A beautiful moonset makes giving up the woods a little easier.
David Horst photo

I was beginning to wonder if we had taken a serious hit in nature sightings.

We had moved our hobby farm from a rolling oak-hickory woods to 18 acres of hayfield. We weren’t seeing the deer under the bird feeders. We weren’t being treated to the daily parade of turkeys through the backyard.

I was starting to miss the woods in a big way.

Then came spring.

While it has not been reflected on the thermometer, spring is here officially and, apparently, in the hearts and instincts of our wildlife.

The weekend before the March 20 change of seasons, we first heard and the spotted — high up in the sky — the return of the sandhill cranes.

Cranes carry considerable importance for us. We have called our place Sandhill Llama Farm since we fenced in a pasture in the Town of Hortonia 19 years ago.

The name paid tribute to the sandhill cranes feeding in the field across the road, the sandy hill on which we built our house and my fondness for Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac.” Our new soil is clay, so our very name was riding on the presence of the big birds.


They arrived and stayed. Peering through our spotting scope into a neighbor’s field I saw a pair of sandhills that seemed suspiciously like a mated pair. After watching for only a short time, I saw them going into their mating dance. Facing each other, they jump into the air with wings and legs extended. Pair confirmed.

Then this past weekend, cranes began to land in our field. First one, then three and a promise of more to come. We no longer have to rely on a neighbor’s land to bring us cranes and crane music in the mornings.

The calendar has never been my measure of spring. For me, the season only arrives when I’ve heard the trill of a red-winged blackbird. Walking through our hayfield on the very day, spring called out from the fence line. The red-wings have provided continual background music ever since.

There are still a few long-held nature traditions to get past. Will the warmer weather bring the grosbeaks, orioles, scarlet tanagers and indigo buntings that brought color to the dull morning?

The woods would be filling with spring ephemeral wildflowers before long. We’ll be hunting the wooded areas along the edges of our new property for the marsh marigolds, anemone, trillium and wild violets that were such a welcome part of spring,

Nature always brings surprises so we are sure to find new delights in this new environment. We now have a creek, crop fields and longer sight lines than we’re used to.

Ahhh, the sight lines. There was something we couldn’t see beyond the forest for the trees. We have traded the woods for spectacular sunsets nearly on a daily basis. If that’s not enough, when the moon is full, we’re treated to beautiful moonsets.

That’s the lesson. Wherever you go, if you are aware, nature will find you.