Groundhog Day

Today we celebrate the weather forecasting abilities of a rodent who should still be slumbering the winter away... Groundhogs usually hibernate until late March.  And we wonder why people in other countries think Americans are weird?

Photo by Fox News on Feb 2, 2018

Our most celebrated groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow on this sunny Pennsylvania morning (or at least it's sunny right now here in Mount Savage on the Maryland/Pennsylvania border) forecasting 6 more weeks of winter.  My first thought was "Ugh! Winter... I hope he's wrong."  Then I started to wonder how often he actually is right.  According to livescience.com, Phil isn't very good at his job.  He's wrong even more than the TV weatherman, the one we curse for being so often wrong, with an accurate prediction of spring weather's arrival just 39% of the time.  That's worse than the 50/50 odds of flipping a coin!

But back to reveling in our oddity... According to legend, if our furry little rodent friend casts a shadow on February 2nd you should expect another 6 weeks of winter weather.  If there's no shadow, then you'll experience spring-like conditions.  Records of his predictions date back to the 1880s when German settlers meshed their Candlemas Day festivities with Native beliefs but it only gained great notoriety following the release of Bill Murray's 1993 comedy movie, Groundhog Day, where he plays a weatherman reliving the day over and over again.  Now thousands of people come from all over the country to this small town in Pennsylvania to gather on Gobbler's Knob and watch as poor Phil is pulled from his warm den to tell us when to expect Spring.  Interestingly, like many of our modern holidays, Groundhog Day is a meshing of ancient Pagan festivities with the beliefs of a local culture which was then Americanized as people left the Motherland in search of safety and/or prosperity.  Candlemas Day has roots in the Pagan holy day of Imbolc which marks the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.  Superstition held that if the day was sunny and bright, the second half of winter would be stormy and cold.  For early European Christians, it became customary to celebrate Candlemas Day by having a priest bless candles and distribute them to the community so a lit candle decorated a window of each home as a symbol of light overtaking dark just as the days began to lengthen.  Literally, it was a Candle Mass.  Some of the rhymes to help people remember this have also been saved, too.

In Old English...
If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

And from Scotland...
If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There'll be two winters in the year.

Germany...
For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day,
So far will the snow swirl until May.
For as the snow blows on Candlemas Day,
So far will the sun shine before May.

And, the early American twist...
If the sun shines on Groundhog Day;
Half the fuel and half the hay.

People who lived in rural areas not near enough to a church to participate in formal Candlemas Day celebrations marked the day by watching wild animals and whether or not they cast a shadow.  For Germans, it was a badger.  So, after they immigrated to America, the groundhog served as a replacement.  Woodchuck, which is how groundhogs are known locally, comes from the native Deleware word "wojak" and is important to the Tribe's creation beliefs.  According to the Deleware, woodchucks represent their ancestors from the time before they emerged from Mother Earth to live and hunt as humans.  They are descendants of the woodchuck.

And now you know what you're really celebrating... a mashup of weather predictions of Native ancestors on an old German holiday that's based on even older Pagan observances of solstices and equinoxes.

Can you get any more American?

Robins, Robins Everywhere

A little before noon today, I stepped outside trying to get the dogs to go potty.  It's raining here in the Atlanta area today and they object strenuously to going out when it's wet so it's quite an endeavor.  As I was wasting my time and breath coaxing the furry beasts, the vibration and sound coming from one of the larger red-berried bushes near the fence caught my attention and I had to stand there mesmerized for awhile.

Photo credit:  http://www.themississagilighthouse.com/leisure.html

Every branch was lined with robins!  I'd have to guess there were at least 100 just in the one bush and even more in pine trees behind.

They were chirping and fluttering about and when the whole flock took flight at the same moment... wow!  Many times I've watched for their return in more northern lands as the first harbinger that spring might just come again but I've never seen so many of them in one place at the same time before.  And the sound of their song was so amazing in such a large chorus.

Check out these interesting robin facts from learner.org.  (The facts are quoted directly, but there's a lot more information about their migration patterns on the web page if you are interested.)

• All robins are not the same: The vast majority of robins do move south in the winter. However, some stick around — and move around — in northern locations.
• Robins migrate more in response to food than to temperature. Fruit is the robin's winter food source. As the ground thaws in the spring, they switch to earthworms and insects. While the robins may arrive when temperatures reach 37 degrees, this is because their food becomes available not because the robins themselves need warm temperatures.
• Robins wander in the winter: Temperatures get colder as winter progresses. Robins need more food when it's cold and more and more of the fruit gets eaten. Robins move here and there in response to diminishing food supplies and harsh weather. If all robins wintered at their breeding latitude, there wouldn't be enough fruit for them all. So robins tend to spread out in the winter in search of fruit. Most hang out where fruit is abundant, but some take the risk of staying farther north where smaller amounts of fruit remain.
• Robins sing when they arrive on territory: Robins sing when they arrive on their breeding territories. Sometimes robins even sing in winter flocks, due to surging hormones as the breeding season approaches. However, in the majority of cases, robins really do wait to sing until they have reached their territory.

The American Robin, scientifically known as Turdus migratorius (Turdus meaning thrush and migratorius, to go), is a member of the thrush family of birds.  First described in 1766 by Carl Linnaeus, it was named after the European Robin because of it's red breast.  The two species are not closely related as the European variety is from the flycatcher family.

Robins are one of the most populous birds in North America with ranges that are mainly seasonal from northern Canada to central Mexico.  It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin.

In the food chain, robins eat small invertebrates like earthworms and beetle grubs along with fruits and berries and they are prey for hawks, larger-sized snakes and cats.

However, I have seen a robin successfully take on a cat!  Hatchlings were just beginning to leave the nest as they learned to fly.  Not all the baby birds took flight on their first try... and the cat perceived some easy pickings as one hopped around in the grass below.  Mama robin saw Lizzie (my old gray cat now 5 years in kitty heaven) coming and commenced a dive bombing mission!!  She flew straight down faster and faster, pulling out of the dive just inches from ducking Lizzie's head, with a loud squawking scream that brought us all running to see what was going on in the back yard.  After the first dive, Lizzie was retreating but the bird kept bombing... getting so close to my head even that I could feel her wings brush against my hair as the scared cat huddled by my feet.  Needless to say, that baby was safe for the next day or so until it got the flight thing figured out.

Robins may be common birds but I enjoy watching them.  They make me happy!