Hermits of the Bog

Though spring is nearly a month away, there begin to be signs of it. Of course, there are still snow patches on untrammeled fields and in the woods, but there are also miniature snowdrops in garden beds. In woodland swamps, there is considerable skunk cabbage activity. These curious “hermits of the bog,” as they are sometimes called, are poking their pointed purple heads up through the snow and melting it around them. They do this by taking oxygen from the soil even on the coldest days, and using it to break down sugars and warm themselves. It can, indeed, be 30 degrees outside and nearly 60 degrees inside the skunk cabbage. It won’t be long now before they will be in full bloom in our swamps and bogs. Despite their unpleasant odor when damaged, they are surely a harbinger of warmer days to come.

And the sun is rising earlier and setting later than it was a month ago. There is less wind to buffet a long walk on an Island beach. Birdsong is more melodious than on cold days. The deep cooing of courting morning doves can be heard and chickadees and nuthatches are beginning to look for nesting places. There have been sightings of red-winged blackbirds.

Seasonal Vineyard residents have started to e-mail or phone their caretakers, asking them to see that all’s in order for an Easter visit, and that any mice or squirrels that wintered over indoors be banished to the outdoors. Landscapers, housepainters and roofers are ready to go back to work.

Of course, it may still snow, but if it does, the chances are that — like the snow around the skunk cabbage — it will soon melt away. Warm weather, at last, is in sight.