My Favorite Things through the Four Seasons: Spring

Spring 2025

By: John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019

It was near the end of February when my sister brought up the imminent arrival of Barn Swallows. Usually the first migrant, the harbinger of spring typically arrives in early March. However, a couple of years previous, I had seen my first one on the last day of February. It was a day or two later that my sister had the same experience with a February Barn Swallow. Though I did not see my first of season swallow for a couple of weeks, I knew that once I did, that spring trailed behind the swallow.

When the Mexican Plums and Eastern Redbuds begin to bloom, it is time to head to the coast with my sister for one of our two annual birding trips. A trip south to Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, High Island, and Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge showed signs of spring. Though it was only mid-March, Bluebonnets aligned the highway and green foliage stood out in stark contrast from the landscape of mostly winter brown of where we began our trip. There were sightings of early spring migrants: Hooded Warbler, Northern Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, and White-eyed Vireo. This excited us as we anticipated the others that would soon take flight at nightfall to cross the vastness of the gulf.

Upon my return home, I noticed the color pop of Coral Honeysuckle against winter’s remnants as I checked for Cooper’s Hawk nest activity and anticipated the return of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. I soon heard the familiar courtship call of the Night-Heron. By the end of the visit, I had located an estimated ten herons. How happy I was to see them again.

April is perhaps the most beautiful month. It smells different. Each day, the lengthening days and rain create a fragrance of fresh lush growth and dampness under the ever-thickening canopy, as my favorite scent, the Japanese Honeysuckle, permeates the air. April also sounds different. Our avian winter guests, fairly quite since their autumn arrival, now fill grasslands, marshes, and wooded areas with their songs in which they would use to secure their mates further north. Always described as flute-like, the song of the Swainson’s Thrush floats through the trees. It brings a joy to me that the enchantress of spring is so good at providing. The willows also begin to shed and sparkle in the shafts of the light the trees create as they leaf-out more each day.

It was a beautiful April day that Jess and I laid on a blanket and looked up at an Orange-crowned Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Yellow-Rumped Warbler as they vocalized and fed voraciously to fuel their migration north. The mid-day temperature, cool under the tree, fought against the warm spring day around us. The dueling seasons created that comfortably numb sensation when you close your eyes to take it all in that only a few spring and fall days can provide.

It was the start of May and time for the second birding trip with my sister to the coast. This time for the final migration push. Having missed the previous year, the 2025 experience made me cherish even more what an amazing and quick duration that spring migration is through the state. The rest of the month was full of illness as I felt I missed much of what followed the first Barn Swallows north. By month’s end and at summer’s doorstep, I was good to return to nature to see what new flowers and birds awaited as I reminisced about my favorite things from spring 2025.

3/25/25- Coral Honeysuckle at Frisco Commons.

3/30/25- A snail taken during my brief flirtation with a macro lens.

4/14/25- You had to get on the ground to really take in the Redstem Stork’s-bill. They are quite small. Before blooming, the plant looks as sharp as needles.

4/15/25- The Yellow-crowned Night-Herons returned for their fourth consecutive breeding season at this location. Sadly, I missed a majority of it this year.

4/20/25- The smell of Japanese Honeysuckle is an olfactory siren-call to the wooded area this time of year. It also reminds me of my youth spent outdoors in the park that I grew up in.