Phenology

[Early Riser]

I really enjoy reflecting back on how the seasons vary so much from year to year. It would be interesting if others could add some of their own notes from observations of natural phenomena over the years. Here are a few of mine to get things started:

As you can see some springs come later than others.

5/09/1992:

"Lots of ice. There was a lead of open water from the landing down to the end of the lake where there was some open water." Caught brookies on jigs/garden worms in 7-10'. Cold and windy but blowing the right way to keep our spot open.

5/10/1992: "Fished ***** Lake (under 20 acre lake). Still 1/2 iced over. Caught 1 brookie and lost 2 others."

5/11/1992 two days after opener:

"Checked Ester Lake which was still iced over. Still snow in the woods. Was able to find open water on Northern Light Lake. Fished down the Brule and around the lake and caught some small northerns."

That summer the water on inland lakes never really warmed up. Bass held their eggs and the walleyes never really set up in their typical spots. I don't think it ever got much above 70 degrees all summer.

6/21/1992:

"Steve and I went fishing in the morning before dawn and had to scrape the winshield of the truck from heavy frost. We caught walleyes, bass and suckers. The fishing is slower this spring/summer no doubt due to the cool weather. Low of 28 degrees this morning. Lost all the tomato plants I had set out a few days ago. Not many bugs yet."

In the spring of 1994 the ice went off of McFarland and Pine lake on May 10th.

04/07/1996:

"I snowshoed over to the sawmill to get some kindeling. The snow is still over 3' deep in the open fields and deeper in the woods."

04/21/1996:

"Put away ice fishing gear and snowmobiles today. Took the kids for a ride around our trails. There is still 2-3' of snow in the woods."

04/25/1996:

"1 degree at the house this morning. We got 8-10" of snow from the storm yesterday. It is unlikely that the ice will off by opener this year."

Some springs come earlier.

3/30/1998:

"Rain yesterday. High of 55 degrees on 3/28. Heard 1st grouse of the year drumming on 3/29. Creeks are flowing hard. Steelhead should be in by the 2nd or 3rd."

In fact they did come in as soon as it warmed a bit after that snow. About a week later my brother and I caught steelhead in the morning and then went into a border lake to catch pre-spawn walleye in the afternoon and evening. There were some moths out and there was enough flowing water between lakes to attract some ducks, eagles and seagulls which were flying around as we ice fished in 60 degree weather.

Some of my notes are up at our cabin but they do reflect a lot of early springs since 1998. It will be ineresting to see what 2008 brings but the trend so far is about 7-10 days behind most years.

[Scott M]

Nice work Early Riser. Want to do the same some day just haven't found the time yet. I know if you go to the bird watching forum, Dotch has a great running account of what he's witnessed at his farm that runs in his local paper as well.