Today is the first day of spring. However, in my family, spring arrived two days ago. How do I know? The ducks told me. You see, for the last 25 years two mallard ducks, a male and a female, have migrated to my parents pool each spring. And on Wednesday, March 18th, they arrived. They will stay until June, they only spend the Spring with us.
Now, I can’t say for sure that it’s the same two ducks, we don’t have tracking devices on them or anything. I surely don’t know anything about the migratory habits of mallards or, if they, like swans and some humans, mate for life. But I’d like to think so. Now that I'm actually thinking about it, what is the lifespan of your average duck?
So, I don't know much about these ducks. I do have some questions for them, though:
• Where is their winter home? Are they Floridians, Georgians, or maybe they prefer the Carolina’s?
• How did they pick our pool and why come back to it every year? It’s very slimy right now and won’t be open for at least a month.
• Where do they go once they leave us?
I’ll never know the answer to these questions and I’m ok with that. I'm starting to think it's all some odd duck timeshare and these poor ducks picked this house because there is a lovely golf course about 100 yards away. Maybe that is what brought them to us originally.
What I do know, is that they are the harbingers of spring for my family. We don’t need the calendar to tell us it should begin today. The weather forecasters get it wrong just as much as they get it right. The ducks, however, are never wrong.
So, happy spring Detroit! The ducks are here and so is Spring. Spring is renewal, regrowth. Plant some flowers, hope, and positive energy in our community.
What does spring mean for you? How do you know it has arrived?