What to Look For in February in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres

Recently, a little girl asked me how we would know summer when global warming will have changed all of the seasons. She has not lived long enough to truly differentiate among the seasons, yet has absorbed enough from the news to be worried about how they will be altered. Where we are, it is currently winter. On the windowsill in front of us was a pot of hyacinth bulbs, which have been slowly growing their leaves and flowers over the past weeks.

The earth is still circling the sun, bringing the northern hemisphere closer as it does at this time every year. This may be the coldest winter Europe has known in many years, but the hyacinths still react to the gradual increase of light and warmth that means the season is changing from winter to spring. No one can say exactly what our world will be like if we continue to pollute it to the point of altering the climate, but we can be sure that it will still orbit the sun, still tilt on its axis, and still spin on that axis. Winter will be darker, summer will be lighter. Winter will be colder than summer. These we can say to children in all honesty.

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Continuing with what to look for month-by-month, here is what those in Britain can expect to see in February's nature:

• Moles prepare their nests
• Blackbirds are in full song
• Frogs begin to croak and spawn
• Coltsfoot flowers
• Daffodils flower late in the month

       
 

In the Atlantic Rainforest of  southern Brazil and the northern part of Argentina, it is hot summertime still. In nature:

• The kapok tree is in bloom with its magnificent pink and yellow flowers shaped like stars
• Many, many trees are producing seeds
• Blue night butterflies (below) can be seen
• The tropical kingbird (top) is calling
• Leaf cutter ants (above) are at their busiest, or at least seem that way

 

Observe

Use the Nature Observation Chart from the previous post to draw what can be observed in nature in your area in February. 

(The drawings above come from the February page of The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross.)

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North