Even though it does not look or feel like spring, it officially started March 20th. Now, ask 6 people what are the first signs of spring in the Northwoods and I’m pretty sure those answers will differ. Well, I did just that and here are their replies.
1) Seeing parts of frozen streams showing open water. 2) I saw the first bear of the year. 3) There were two swans sitting in open water.
4)  Seeing buckets hanging on trees for maple syrup.  5) Viewed robins in their yard. These 6 reasons why people believe spring has spung all hold merit.

I have seen a few steams and inlets with open water and some shorelines opening up. Let’s hope the temperatures we are supposed to get at the end of this week stay around. We want to have open water for the fishing opener May 3rd, right? As far as seeing bear, I personally haven’t seen one yet. But I have seen pictures from a trail camera of a bear that friends had in their back yard. The bear on the trail camera wasn’t that large so we believe it was a male as they leave their dens before female bears.

I have seen a pair of Trumpeter swans sitting in open water near Boulder Junction. These beautiful white birds usually show up in April after leaving their homes on the Pacific Coast at the end of February into March. Trumpeter Swans arrive in the Northwoods just in time to mate and could start laying eggs through may into June. Then in July a clutch of 5 or more cygnets will be in the nest.

Being that Wisconsin rates 5th in North America for producing maple syrup, friends started hanging buckets and collecting sap last month.
Maple sap is only 4% sugar and 8% sugar after reverse osmosis. For every 40 gallons of sap boiled, one gallon of syrup is produced. The syrup will be filtered to remove sugar crystals and bottled at 180 degrees. I’m here to tell you, if you ever seen or participated in making syrup, you would never complain about the price of syrup again.

I personally have not seen Wisconsin’s state bird yet. Right now, most might be thinking the Bald Eagle, or maybe Bluebirds because we see these year-round. Nope, in 1949, the ROBIN became Wisconsin’s state bird. I don’t have anything else to say about this besides, our state bird will be yanking worms out of our yards soon. When I found this out, I was totally disappointed, but the ROBIN is also the state bird of Michigan and Connecticut.

There are two more signs of spring I want to add to this list, and I believe this first one many will agree with. This sign of spring causes itchy/watery eyes, sneezing, sinus congestion along with other symptoms. Yep, I’m talking about allergies. Some folks experience year-round allergies while others have seasonal allergies. Ask what causes spring allergies, and its mostly pollen, grass or weeds. If this is true, why do we have these symptoms when the ground was covered with snow?

The second is the LITTLE BROWN BAT. This tiny (2 1/2 to 4 inches) nocturnal insect eating machine, awakes from hibernation in March into April. If you would like to rid your yard of mosquitos, read this week’s feature article.