Wisconsin’s state tree, the sugar maple, is in season this month. But then, it’s in season spring, summer and autumn, too, with fall hues, summer shade and flower buds.
We’re talking maple syrup time today. Maple sap began flowing several weeks ago, but fluctuations in temperature and sunny days turned the taps (spiles or spouts) off and on.
Sugar maple became the state tree in 1949 with a law of the Legislature, after several votes among school children. Sometimes the Legislature does an end around and bypasses the good thoughts of Wisconsin’s students in selecting another state symbol. Naming ginseng the state herb was one such shortcut.
Sap comes leaking out of maple boles, branches and twigs when morning temperatures (and sun) crack 32 degrees. If nights dip below, then the day’s end sap drips may freeze forming sapcicles.
When maple street trees are trimmed in March, they look more like Christmas trees with all the sapcicles on cold days. Nature’s sapcicles are edible, regardless if they come from sugar maple or boxelder.
There are sophisticated and simple means of collecting and boiling sap to make syrup and then maple sugar, but a kitchen stove will do for someone getting acquainted.
Other animals love to sip the sap, too, including deer, squirrels, woodpeckers and a host of other feeder birds. So, why not make a tap into a bird feeder if collecting, boiling, and jarring are not likable tasks.
In addition to all the maple species, white birch is also a spring sap producer, but a few weeks later. Birch sap contains less sugar, however, much less.
Early migrating yellow-bellied sapsuckers pick on birch for its sap as soon as they arrive, and then the ruby-throated hummingbirds use the sapsuckers’ holes, as do many other birds without sharp beaks.
Shagbark hickories are used to make syrup, too, but not from sap. The fallen strips of bark from this nut-producing hickory flavors water when boiled and sugar and water make the slurry into hickory syrup.
Notice, too, that squirrels are active eating expanding maple tree flower buds, which is a signal the sap is no longer running. After the flowers set winged-fruit, the squirrels eat those, too.
New York, Vermont and West Virginia join Wisconsin as celebrating the sugar maple as a state tree.
Canada, however, produces 75 percent of the world’s maple syrup.
Other welcoming spring signals are mounting. Sandhill cranes are arriving, more robins and bluebirds are here (time to ready the nest boxes); deer coats are beginning to get cleaned up from winter and a few antlers are still holding on; skunks and opossums are more active; skunk cabbage is poking out of the snow in marshes; and Canada geese are making return flights. The local Canadas are moving around at sunrise to find food. Most active eagle nests are occupied with incubating males and larger females. Those eggs should hatch about the end of March, 35 days from start to finish. Fledging will be about July 4; easy to remember.
Madison Audubon volunteers monitoring eagle nests in southwest Wisconsin reported incubation in 16 nests, seven nests with adults present, five nests potentially inactive and six nests with insufficient information.
With trout fishing beginning to pick up, a quick read and some thought might be given to peeking at “The Angler’s Book of Favorite Fishing Quotations,” compiled by Jackie Corley, which has Tow Brokaw being quoted as saying, “If fishing is a religion, fly-fishing is high church.”
Another contributor compares hunters as seeking prey, while anglers can be considered the prey with the lures used to coax fish to prey upon the bait presented.
Watercress greens are looking great and do wonders to raise spirits seeing dark lime green against drab brown vegetation and dirty snow. Springs are a great place to see early robins, too.
No one can catch all the spring harbingers, but keep trying.
— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.
