Winter 2024-2025
By: John W. Garbutt- Class of 2019
It was the first day of winter. It felt like winter but still looked like autumn. Christmas was a few days away and I knew with the forecast that it would feel like spring by the time I arrived at my parents. Like Irving Berlin in 1940 on that 80-degree Southern California winter day, I also dreamt of a white Christmas.
In mid-December I had read of the likelihood of an Arctic blast pushing south around the second week of the year. It snowed just over two weeks late for Christmas. I had forgotten how bright the city could be at night, under cloud, with streetlight reflecting on snow. The crunch of snow underfoot is one of my favorite sounds. Another is how the world quietens under a blanket of snow. It was a beautiful and peaceful couple of days.
Winter never seems to gradually give way to spring as it warms quickly. Though in early March the temperature went from spring to winter overnight, then back to spring. However, in the end, this winter had much more of a winter feel than the last. As Jessica and I visited the park in early March we examined the early signs of spring. As I look forward to spring and bird migration, I pause to enjoy the moments and my favorite things from the winter of 2024-25.
1/9/25- Snow covered bluestem in Frisco.
1/9/25- Snow covered goldenrod in Frisco.
1/10/25- Hunting on a winter morning in Frisco.
1/10/25- Yellow-rumped Warbler in the snow in Frisco.
1/10/25- Snow- and ice-covered Juniper berries in Frisco.
2/2/25- Female Eastern Bluebird at Oak Point Park in Plano.
2/24/25- I was fortunate enough to witness the prescribed burn at the Heard Natural Science Museum in McKinney.
3/2/25- I look forward to late winter, before the trees leaf out, to locate the Cooper’s Hawks and their nest location.
3/2/25- Red-shouldered Hawk on the hunt at the Heard Natural Science Museum in McKinney.
3/9/25- Winter fades out. Spring Fades in. Mexican Plum bloom at Frisco Commons.
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