Early pasqueflower

I saw the first pasqueflower of the season this morning!

I was birding at Chautauqua with the folks from the Wild Bird Company (link updated to 2015 name change), a walk that takes place every Saturday morning, 7:30 a.m., and one alert birder spotted the flower while she was gazing down at our feet instead of up at the treetops.

Spotting the first pasqueflower is always a sign of hope, but this year it means something different. We’ve had three straight weeks of unseasonably warm weather, and the pasqueflower is early. Way too early.

Humanly created global warming is accelerating, says the World Meteorological Organization. The climate is changing even faster than we thought.

Working to reverse climate change has to become a priority of the people in this country. We have to stop using fossil fuels!

You can help monitor the changing climate. Watch birds or flowers in your backyard, and get your results counted in one of the many citizen science programs run by the National Wildlife Federation.

 

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3 Responses to Early pasqueflower

  1. Kathy Kaiser says:March 25, 2012 at 7:35 pm

    Beautiful, yes, but scary to see it so early.

  2. Claire Walter says:April 3, 2012 at 4:10 am

    We saw a number of pasque flowers along the Enchanted Mesa Trail on Sunday morning, hiking in temperatures that were more like May than March. Diffferent days, same experience.

  3. Gail Storey says:April 22, 2012 at 10:34 am

    Thank you so much for sharing this pasqueflower. It speaks to my heart about your important statement that we have to stop using fossil fuels. Porter and I are biking more, driving less (one car is more than enough, and it sits in the garage), eliminating unnecessary air travel, saying no to plastic bags, using solar power–we can and must do a lot more each day to live within the planet’s means.