"What a Search for the Signs of Spring Reveals"

"A writer wonders whether the wild things around her are out of sync with the season."

"If you looked into the sky before dawn on Monday, you might have seen the worm moon.

That’s the name some Native Americans give the March full moon because that’s when the soil warms and earthworms emerge. Others call it the crust moon, when snow melts and refreezes, or the sap moon, when maple trees are tapped.

But we’ve had little snow to melt because this winter was the warmest on record for the lower 48 states, and my friends tapped their trees in February. This makes me wonder: Which signs of spring still align with such ancient wisdom?

I’ve been thinking about that on my walks around our Pennsylvania farm."

Daryln Brewer Hoffstot reports for the New York Times with photographs by Kristian Thacker March 25, 2024.