Proverbially, March is expected to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb. This year, however, she wasn’t as threatening as a lion upon arriving nor as sweet as a lamb when she left. She didn’t seem to know what she was. Her moods swung quickly from brightly sunny to morose gray, to bouts of furious wind and rain, and interludes of snow, sometimes sprinkled delicately, sometimes heaved explosively.
Nonetheless, her sunny days were stunning:
March’s other moods often were dramatic and sometimes starkly beautiful, but always interesting. To be sure, the snow had to be plowed and the rain turned March into our “mud season,” as usual. But, the glory of the sun appearing after heavy snow or rain storms made up for the inconveniences.
Our earliest flora began to emerge in March. The pixie-hats (spathes) of the eastern skunk cabbage this year emerged from the wet bogs not only in their usual mottled colors, but sometimes in an unusual all-yellow form. The fur paws of the pussy willows appeared as well, and the sap began to run in the maple trees, where it was rerouted into the plastic tubes that maple syrup producers use to collect it.
Although we had a fair amount of snow, there was no dangerous blizzard; intervening thaws enabled the wildlife to get by without much trouble. The white-tailed deer just nosed through the snow; the dawn bobcat waited for the thaws to hunt; the male wild turkeys began their spring struts on schedule, and the Canada geese (many already paired) began migrating through.
On the working waterfront, the fishing vessels continued the winter Atlantic scallop season, sometimes getting covered in ice on cold days. The elver (“glass eel”) season opened in March here and fyke nets were strung across stream mouths to catch these highly-prized (and highly-priced) baby American eels.
One of the entertainment highlights of the month was the performance at the Ellsworth Grand Theater of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera “The Pirates of Penzance.” As you may know, this features the kind-hearted Pirate King and his inept pirates; the officious Sergeant and his cowardly constables; and the blustering Major-General and his unmarried daughters, including Mabel who carries on outrageously with Frederick, the young pirate who wants to retire.
Finally, we leave you with the March full moon appearing on one of the month’s more turbulent nights:
(All images in this post were taken in Downeast Maine during March of 2023.)