Nature Happenings

• Great Backyard Bird Count, mid-month, www.birdsource.org/gbbc
• Project FeederWatch continues, www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw
• February is National Bird Feeding Month
• Cardinals begin calling, signaling the onset of breeding season.
• Skunk Cabbage flowers are emerging, generating heat to melt the frozen ground surrounding them.
• Listen for the Black-capped Chickadee mating call.
• Eastern Grey Squirrel mating season.
• Maple tree sap is running, so Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are working the trees.
• Hibernating butterflies (Morning Cloak, Comma) emerge on warm days.
• Raccoon, woodchuck, beaver, skunk, opossum and rabbit mating seasons.
• Nest boxes need to be cleaned out this month.
• Male Red-winged Blackbirds, Killdeer and Great Blue Herons return.