Spring Time Is Here

So much for the groundhog… the signs of spring are here. Spring training is underway, flowers are blooming all over the place, and the birds are headed north again.

It’s great to be able to pick up the newspaper and read about all of the things happening with the Phillies down in Florida. Who’s injured, who’s healthy, who’s getting healthy; and especially, what they’re doing to get ready to win another championship. Being a Reading Phillies fan and a follower of Minor League Baseball, it’s always fun to see which prospects are making the biggest impact.

Last weekend my wife and I spent some time out in Lancaster county while celebrating our 35^th wedding anniversary and were amazed with all of the spring flowers we saw in bloom. One in particular caught our attention, the winter aconite, it’s a low, ground hugging plant with deep yellow flowers. Like most early blooming plants, the flowers only open while the sun is shining on them and close again during the night. They were all over the place.

But the surest sign of spring is the annual migration of the snow geese heading north toward their summertime homes. One of the best places to witness this is at the Middlecreek Wildlife Management Area on the Lebanon-Lancaster county line near Kleinfeltersville, less than an hour away. The 6,254-acre conservation area is owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and includes a 400 acre manmade lake.

It was created in the late 1960’s as a home for a local Canadian Goose population.  Since then, Middlecreek has become one of the most important areas to sustain the migration of over 100,000 snow geese, as well as thousands of Tundra Swans every year. During the next few weeks, early to mid March, is usually the best time of year to witness this spectacle.  The birds generally spend the night on the water, so sunrise and sunset are the best times to see large numbers of snow geese and tundra swans taking off from and landing on the lake surface. However, they do come and go throughout the day.

You can find more information at this website: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=613318&mode=2

When you visit be sure to remember your binoculars and camera…