It may be a little late in the season to write about the signs of Spring, as we see them out here on the Cheyenne River Ranch. There are a few things here on the prairie that many people seldom, if ever, have the opportunity to witness. That does not mean to suggest that we have something particularly unique–quite the opposite, but the prairie offers an abundance of interesting, even fascinating signs of spring.
All of the usual things happen: snow and ice melt; wind continues its rampage; trees, shrubs, and flowers bud and flourish; robins and doves reappear; everything begins to turn green; Sandhill Cranes, geese and ducks move across the skies and use their traditional resting places; deer begin to grow their antlers.
And one day in March or April, perhaps while on horseback riding on a gathering of cow/calf pairs for a branding at one of the neighbors, a startled Burrowing Owl flies from one Prairie Dog burrow to another. Its flight startles you, too, because you thought it was yet too early for them to be back on their breeding territories. This small observation can serve to alert the observer, who to this point, has been casual, or locked into winter mode, or intensely focused on the job at hand.
Now there stands a buck antelope off to one side on the slope of a hill, staunchly defiant on a territory he has established in his quest to gather a band of does. He stands and watches you pass and may even take a step or two toward you, as if to say: “Move on by, stranger, I have staked this claim.”
On another day, perhaps a little later, there appears a pair of Long-billed Curlews. They fly at an altitude of about fifty feet and stay one hundred yards away, their down-curved wings and the long, down-curved bills unmistakable. They glide to a running landing in a greening pasture. They will reside there until late summer.
Then you might see a Turkey Vulture, or a Cooper’s Hawk. The male Kestrel has already been here for a month waiting to attract a mate when the females return. And high in the sky, a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks performs their intricate aerial, courtship display flight, circling up almost out of sight and diving in a long, fast angle toward the nest tree. They land lightly, delicately even, with outspread wings breaking their descent, with unbelievable efficiency. They perch elegantly as if nothing extraordinary had just happened.
And later, or sooner, as it sometimes happens, usually between the end of March and the middle of April, a little, wobbly, golden furred and fluffy little critter nuzzles its mother, perhaps at some distance from the main herd; usually with its yearling and two year old siblings in attendance. Shortly thereafter the buffalo cow will bring her newborn to meet the rest of the herd.
These signs of Spring appear without fanfare, but always to surprise the complacent observer out of his or her casual, or tired Winter mode.
Spring has arrived; the madness of March, the cruelty of April not withstanding.