NEWS FROM THE NORTHERN OBSERVATION POSTS MARCH 15, 2005 Ute Keitsch: Port Hope, ON: We have minus 8 Celcious, but the sun is coming up for a sunny Day. March 13 at 6:20 am we heard the first sweet song of the Robin at our New Home in Port Hope. It is-- and was--so cold in the last week . Linda Hoffman: Creston, BC The robins keep showing up and the males are into the fighting for territory stage although I haven't heard that lovely morning "my territory, keep away" song yet. It continues to be a very early spring with temperatures running about 6-8 degrees above normal. The early perennials such as tulips, bleeding heart and daffodils are well above the ground. Hopefully, rain will come in April to replenish the water supply. Even some shrubs have full buds. Joy Hamilton: Innoko River School, Shageluk, AK Well, here's the news--the sun is high in the sky now and we have the Iditarod coming through! Here is our message this morning. You might want to check out our website as the mushers are soon to arrive. I suppose you could say "The Iditarod Migration is occurring!" At any rate--we SHOULD be getting our first bird migrant--The Bald Eagle and we'll sure let you know when that happens! Now here's our "Iditarod Migration" report! The Innoko River School in Shageluk cordially invites you to follow the Iditarod Sled Dog Race from a rural student point of view as the mushers, race officials and media come through our village. Student reporters, photographers and webmasters interview and report on historical stories of dog sledding in our village, the impact the Iditarod Sled Dog Race has on our community and how hard our people work as volunteers for this great sled dog race. Please join us for our updates several times a day for the next week to read the interviews and see the exclusive pictures brought to you by our high school students. Don't miss it! The first mushers should be arriving in Shageluk sometime today! Shirley Bell: Pinawa, MB It is still winter here. If it's not too cold, it’s snowing. This is our year for snow in eastern Manitoba. There is ice everywhere when it is not snowing. I have not seen a bird. Even the ravens have deserted us for the local dump. The only thing wonderful about the whole month is the daylight. We now have breakfast and supper without the lights on. Since Feb14th we have gained 1:45 hrs of daylight. Feb. 14 sunrise 7:36 sunset 5:41 CST. Mar 14 sunrise 6:38 sunset 6:28 CST Wayne Dwornik: Lethbridge, AB Weather has been great... very warm. "March came in like a lamb." Do any of the students know about some of those OLD Sayings?? I've found many kids here--even my daughter--are not familiar with so many of those old cherished sayings that we of the baby boomer generation grew up with. 3-14-05 There is still not a lot of excitement here in Lethbridge. Wonky weather continues. One day warm +16C, then cool. This weekend was wild! Sunny - dark 'n cloudy, light snow showers just blew through one after another; sometimes light fluffy flakes, next time hard sleety pellets. Weird!! Our house finches were still singin' away though. I drove up to Edmonton earlier this week, and saw an American Crow just outside of Nanton, about 40 miles south of Calgary, AB. but nothing else to remark on. Dominique Cloutier: St. Sauveur des Monts, PQ This winter has been a little "strange." In early February, we had extremely mild days, to the point that squirrels started chasing each other in the trees. It even rained, as if Spring had arrived! It was only wishful thinking ;-) After a week, we were back to normal--even worse than normal, with very low temperatures and quite a bit of snow. I have been looking around and also asking about "wintering Robins," but not one around. Margot Hervieux, Grande Prairie, AB We are having a strange spring. We have had above freezing temperatures for at least two weeks (up into the low teens and including many warm nights) and most of our snow is gone. I have seen a couple of Canada Geese (right on time) but reports from Edmonton (about 400 km south west) indicate that migrants are moving early. They have already had a red-winged blackbird as well as gulls and crows. No robins yet, though. We also have aspens and willows coming into flower in sheltered spots. I can't help but wonder what will happen if we get some more normal or even cold weather. Stan White: Homer, AK Rain is the weather word here on the southern Kenai Peninsula. Our roads are turning to mud, the snow is losing ground, and you can hear the sound of running water now for the first time in several months. It seems like its getting warm earlier than normal, but the daylight is right on schedule: we now have almost equal days and nights, just like the rest of the world does at this time of the year; however, we will continue to gain 5 or 6 minutes a day until the white nights of summer peak in June. There have been some reports of geese, swans and robins spending the winter in the area, but we haven't got any true migrants coming in yet -- that will take about another month. Also the plant kingdom is remaining cautious about showing any tender new growth until it really is spring; the weather could take a cold turn at any time. However, even though we can't boast of pleasant weather or birds singing or flowers blooming, there are enough signs of the season's change that our spirits are picking up. Ken Moore: Stirling, Alberta A little note following my report of the first robin of the year here in Stirling. We've had unusually warm "winter" weather here in southern Alberta this year. They attribute our near record warm temperatures to El Niño. It was +12C (54F) this morning when I got up at 6am ... which is a great daytime high for anywhere on the Canadian prairies for April ... let alone an overnight low for the first part of March. Since mid-January, almost every day has since above freezing temperatures and we haven't had snow on the ground for weeks. While many of the lakes and sloughs were covered in ice up until about a week ago (mainly because overnight lows were in the minus teens Celsius there is lots of open water around now). Tulips are coming up around house foundations and buds on trees are starting to swell, almost ready to burst forth. We'll look for other robins now, but at least the first one has arrived. Vi and Richard Darling: Nipawin, SK We have lots of sparrows that eat the dark sunflower seeds in the feeders and on the ground around the feeders. I think one sparrow each day is selected to "kick out" the seeds from the feeder in the tree, as the sparrows seem to like to eat off the ground. Our temperatures are beginning to get higher with the nights going down to just -15 Celsius and the days up to 0, so our ice and snow (about 1 foot now) are going down each day. The big news is that the days are getting longer from daylight at 7 a.m. and darkness about 7 p.m. That is really a great sign of spring. Try This! Make Your Predictions 2005 Prediction Log for NOPs   Copyright 2005 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to jn-help@learner.org