Hares, birds and flowers completely refuted meteorologists’ forecast for spring 24

What will be the most anticipated season of the year, scientists, folk signs and nature itself argued

Following an abnormally snowy winter, an unpredictable spring came to the Moscow region. Although weather forecasters predicted that due to the abundance of snow, temperatures in March would be below the climate norm, nature apparently has its own reasons. Animals, birds and plants, contrary to all scientific forecasts, predict the arrival of early spring.

The sisters of the monastery were the first to notice that the willow tree was blooming on the territory of the Vvedensky Vladychny Convent. I don’t remember blooming so early here. The tree was covered with white fluffy lumps even before the start of Lent, and even a whole month and a half before Palm Sunday.

Migratory birds are also hastening spring. Rooks and seagulls also returned to the Moscow region ahead of schedule this year. Birds are indeed returning from wintering, although this is not yet a mass migration, ornithologists say. But the hares, on the contrary, began mass mating games. Patterns left by hare paws appeared in forest clearings and snow-covered fields. If you look closely, you will notice that the tracks are in pairs, the animals run after each other, and sometimes get into fist fights.

Everyone in childhood read about the crazy March hare in Lewis Carroll’s fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland,” but few people know that in real life, hares in March also behave very strangely. They rush after each other through fields and forests, lose their caution, you can get quite close to them and see hare fights without rules.

“People make the mistake of thinking that it is the males who fight over the female. In fact, it’s the hare herself who fights; she can give quite a hefty slap to an unlucky suitor if he pokes his head towards her at a time when she is not yet ready to mate,” says biologist Sergei Matyushin.

According to him, the fact that the mating season has begun for hares is one of the surest signs of the coming spring. Animals are not guided by the calendar; their “feelings” are given a signal by the sun.

“Natural cycles are controlled by phenological processes – primarily solar activity and other natural factors, such as temperature fluctuations and pressure changes,” says the expert.

Another sure sign of the coming spring is the blooming of snowdrops. Usually these primroses bloom in late March – early April. But this year, for some reason, everyone is in a hurry: at least in Lyublino, near the main entrance to the Lomakovsky Automobile and Motor Museum and in the Apothecary Garden (a division of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov), the first snowdrops bloomed a week ago. You can admire them for another two weeks.

“Spring is a very broad concept. There is an astrological spring, it comes after the vernal equinox, which falls on March 20. There is a meteorological spring; we can talk about its onset when the daily temperature rises to 5 degrees Celsius and plant growth begins. And if we talk about phenological spring, then it generally has several periods. Now the spring of light has come to Moscow and the Moscow region, as Mikhail Prishvin called it. It is marked by the appearance of black thawed patches in snow-covered fields and the flowering of alder and hazel in the forest. There may still be severe frosts in March. By the way, they have a very detrimental effect on hare offspring. Because little hares cannot warm themselves, and female hares are not exemplary mothers. They leave their cubs alone while they go in search of food. Therefore, if the spring is warm, then the number of hares increases, and vice versa,” says Matyushin.

Folk signs about spring:

– Long icicles – for a long spring.

— Early spring is a sign that there will be many bad weather days in the summer.

– Thunder in early spring – before the cold.

– March is dry, April is damp, May is cold – a grain-bearing year.

— The early arrival of rooks and larks means a warm spring.

— Birds build nests on the sunny side – for a cold summer.

— If there are a lot of cobwebs in the spring, it means a hot summer.

– If a lot of mice appear in the spring, the year will be lean.

– A lot of sap flows from the birch – for a rainy summer.