March

March

The vernal (spring) equinox starts on the 20th. The days

and night are of equal length.

Did you know that in March:

Periods of warm weather break up the cold so

many animals start to come out of hibernation.

Also, spring flowers begin to appear and trees

start to grow new leaves. On one of the warmer

days a queen bumblebee will emerge from her

winter hibernation and will feed on the nectar of

the plants.

What to look for in March.

How many of these things will you see?

primroses

birds gathering nesting materials

flying bumblebees

frogspawn

flowering gorse

Things to do:

Looking at pine cones

Collect two pine cones from the forest floor. Place one in a bowl of water

for 10 minutes and keep the other one dry.

Compare the two cones. What are the differences?

The reason that the wet one closes the scales is to keep the seeds dry so they

can float away on the wind to a place where they can grow.

Take the wet one out of the water and watch what happens when it dries.