Sunlight & Seasons
Signs of Spring: Observations for April 2010

April brings the great greening. Nature's timing is perfect. Leaves emerge, insects hatch and birds arrive. The food chain comes alive after the pause for winter. Listen for new sounds, and observe the small changes that happen every day now. Fill in the maps with your sighting reports. Create a record of leaf out. Put it into a book you can keep and compare with each coming year.


What "Neotropical" visitor is soon to arrive from a long journey across the Gulf?

Find out more...

News: The Great Greening

"The tiny leaf buds of the tree outside the classroom have exploded open!" writes one Journey North observer. Spring and green go together. From St. Patrick's Day through the next month or so the Northern Hemisphere will be growing green.

This month think about the great greening of the earth. How do trees know it's spring? What happens if the leaves come out too early? Why do some songbirds arrive from the Tropics just as the leaves emerge on my trees?

How green is it outside today, on the first of April? Report "Leaf Out" of any Redbud, Dogwood, Aspen, or Sugar Maple with leaves as big as a quarter.
What's Happening to the Sunlight?

Are you tracking sunrise and sunset times, daylength, or shadows in your hometown? What have you noticed? These things continue to change very quickly! How do they affect the progress of spring?

Imagine you're in space looking at Earth on the morning of April 1.

Explore: Sounds of Spring
"I heard spring peepers last night! My favorite sound of spring!" writes one Journey North observer. Even before the thin skin of ice on some ponds is melted, the spring peepers have started their spring chorus.

What have you heard this spring? When you make your April observations and write in your Signs of Spring journal, handout, or checklist (see resources, below), try to be spring sound sleuths!
  • Sounds of Spring: Go outside with a journal or notebook. Find a spot to sit still for 5 or 10 minutes. Close your eyes and open your ears. What sounds do you notice? Next, write a description of each sound and what you think caused it. (A buzzing bee? Scurrying squirrel? Squishing mud? Dripping water?) Which of these are mainly spring sounds? Explain why you chose those. Try to record the date, time, weather conditions, location, and habitat for each sighting.


This noisy spring peeper is barely as long as a paper clip!


The loud tree frog isn't much bigger!
Explore: Leaf Out

One of the best places for observing the greening of spring could be in your own schoolyard.

Erik is bud-watching and measuring as the trees start to grow in Port Jefferson, New York. He reported, "I noticed a bud: on March 9th is was 6cm., on March 18th it was 10cm., and on March 25th it was 13cm."

Try This!
Go out to your school yard and choose a tree with low enough branches that you can see the buds up close. Mark it with yarn. Visit your tree often. Take notes as it begins to green up.

When the buds are just beginning to break you can start this leaf-out lesson.

Here are some ideas for measuring, collecting, and preserving your leaves. Use all the notes and sketches you collect to make a beautiful accordion book!


Create a beautiful record of leaf out this spring.


Keep tree identification guides handy to identify your tree.
Resources to Explore
What is this bird doing?
Photo: Ann Cook
Signs of Spring for May
A reminder will be posted on May 1, 2010


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