Eastern Pennsylvania Phenology: changing seasons

Showing posts with label changing seasons. Show all posts

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Another set of observations about changes in our seasons.

This new essay in the May/June 2013 Orion is written by my friend Sandra Steingraber and is worth a read:

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/7487

While I will never be able to write like Sandra, this reminds me of my post from last winter (that wasn't):

http://watchingtheseasons.blogspot.com/2012/02/winter-that-hasnt-been.html

There are many periodic events in nature: the budding of leaves and flowers in the spring, the changing color of leaves in the fall, migrations, insects hatching, etc. There are also physical changes that we pay attention to such as the first and last frosts, and the thawing of the ice on lakes and ponds. Monitoring these seasonal signs is known as phenology. The timing of these events in nature is extremely sensitive to changes in the environment. Thus, collecting data on the timing of phenology events over many years can give us important clues about what might be changing in our world. This blog will record seasonal changes being observed in eastern Pennsylvania. My hope is to have others in the region contribute by commenting on what they are observing in their backyards or what they notice while being outdoors -- hiking, birding, biking, or whatever. I look forward to your comments about what is changing in your "neck of the woods".

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Another set of observations about changes in our seasons.