The First Day of Spring – For Me

Sometimes the personal doesn’t jive with the “official”.

The first day of spring for 2020 is officially March 19. It is always March 19, 20, or 21 every year. Spring Equinox is the official term for the day. An equinox is the exact instant when the Sun is directly overhead at the Equator and the Earth’s rotational axis is tilted neither towards nor away from the Sun. In technical terms, this means that at the instant of the equinox, the Earth’s celestial equator (our equator’s imaginary projection straight out into space) intersects with the center of the Sun. This happens twice a year — on the first day of spring and the first day of fall.

My personal first day of spring varies from year-to-year. This year it was February 18. One year it was January 21.

Since the mid-1970s, I have determined the first day of spring in a very specific and special way. It is the day when I first hear the drumming of a woodpecker and the laughing call of a White-breasted Nuthatch on the same day. It can’t be just a woodpecker tapping, nor can it be the nuthatch’s ordinary call. Those can be heard all year long. But the drumming and the laughing call seem to happen when the birds sense that the season is beginning to change a little.

Pileated Woodpecker (Photo (c) Bill Beatty)

Woodpecker drumming

White-breasted Nuthatch (Photo (c) Bill Beatty)

Laughing song of the White-breasted Nuthatch

For me, the first day of spring is a challenge. I can’t notice it if I am inside, so this challenge gets me outside — in nature. The cool air is refreshing. Being in nature clears my head. Sometimes I just saunter and listen. Other times the exercise is heart thumping, but either way, I know I am much healthier for being in nature. Always, I say to myself, “This has been a wonderful day! Remember this when it’s rainy, windy or oppressively hot.” I hope to accept this challenge again and again. I embrace the challenge. I embrace all the wonders of Creation and the renewal which is Spring.