There often comes a time in early spring when the seasonal progress seems to stall — there are still freezing temperatures at night, many ponds are still ice-covered, the iris shoots in the meadows aren’t getting perceptibly bigger, meadow grasses and sedges lie flat and dead, the lady ferns stay humped under their old dark fronds — and we get impatient for more signs of spring.<\/p>\n
That is a good time to notice little spots of color in the forests and meadows. Folks who live in Southeast had better like green and gray because those colors are the common background on the landscape — green conifers and frequent gray clouds. One can add “brown” for all the dead grasses and sedges lying in the meadows. But the little bright spots of other colors are a visual treat, adding interest to a walk.<\/p>\n
[Signs of spring’s arrival all around Juneau]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n Touches of red pop up in several ways:<\/p>\n • Ruby red berries of so-called false lily of the valley lie nestled like glowing jewels in the moss. These are last year’s fruits that typically don’t ripen until they have overwintered. They will feed the early-arriving robins and then the hermit thrushes.<\/p>\n • Red twigs of the early-blueberry shrubs gleam, adding a pleasing contrast in the still-leafless understory. That observation brings up a question: why do these twigs turn red but not (or so I am told by those who know more than I do) those of the later-blooming Alaska blueberry?<\/p>\n • A few translucent red berries of high-bush cranberry hang at the ends of thin branches, uneaten by bears or pine grosbeaks or anybody else last fall or winter.<\/p>\n • A flash of red on the side of a tree trunk helps to advertise the presence of a red-breasted sapsucker as it hitches its way upward, tapping the bark.<\/p>\n • Along the roadsides, the male catkins of red alder make a swathe of a duller red that is nevertheless very noticeable against the conifers’ green. As the catkins mature, they droop and gradually open to release pollen, and the redness fades.<\/p>\n