Mass anxiety and uncertainty upset our lives now. Turmoil sweeps the land. But in the natural world, there is resurrection, certainty — mating, nesting, birth, new life.
I see and rejoice in this certainty now as spring crawls across the land, greening and rejuvenating the Earth — the way it always has done. It’s why April is one of my two most favorite months (the other being October).
As if on cue, Georgia’s beloved ruby-throated hummingbirds are arriving from winter homes in Central America for the nesting season. Wood thrushes, some of Georgia’s sweetest singing birds, are coming in and already belting out melodious song. Whip-poor-wills and their close cousins chuck-will’s-widows, whose plaintive calls are the essence of spring and summer evenings, already are calling.
Any day now, the first waves of warblers from winter homes in Latin America will be showing up. It’s why April sometimes is called “warbler month.” The colorful, mellifluous little birds add joy and sparkle to spring and summer days.
Soon, warblers and more than 30 other songbird species will join one another in the daily “dawn chorus,” singing and tweeting with great exuberance in the woods and in our yards and neighborhoods as the sun comes up.
I also see resurrection and certainty in the scores of native wildflower species blooming now — as they’ve done each spring for countless millennia. They’re the reason I usually spend every April traveling around Georgia, drinking in their beauty and appreciating their niches in the environment.
But not this year. This April, my “field trips” are restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, I am comforted by the certainty of nature. Even though I can’t see them, I know that the wildflowers are blooming, unbothered by the contagion, and that life in the wild goes on as usual.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be full on Tuesday — the “Flower Moon,” as the Cherokee peoples called April’s full moon. Venus is low in the west just after dark and sets an hour later. Mars rises about four hours before sunrise and will appear near the moon on Wednesday. Jupiter and Saturn rise in the east just after midnight, and will appear near the moon on Tuesday night.
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