When has spring sprung?
A goldfinch starts to grow breeding plumage.
Special

When has spring sprung?

Readers reflect on the signs of an elusive season

I used to count on the robins, but I have been wrong quite often. Over the last several years, I have noticed that the arrival of turkey vultures and planting time are fairly close. -Pamela Simmons

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When I stop procrastinating and pay attention to my lawn. -Tim Johnson Arsenault

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When it is summer and I realized I missed it. (Totally off the cuff, but it is going to be one of those years, I think.) We had spring in December of 2015, no?

Also, when the vultures are circling the mountains here in Townshend. When I see the first one, I know it is right. -Rick Hege

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When it stops snowing - if that ever happens. -Judy McGee

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When the storm windows go back into hiding. -Laura Austan

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I was told when I first moved to Vermont that if you could place your bare bottom on the ground and not say, “S-, that's cold!,” then spring has arrived. -Lisa Mitchell St. Clair

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When I lived back East, there were two signs that heralded the arrival of spring.

The first was hearing the spring peepers - always a joyful noise!

The second was when the starlings returned to nest in the defunct dryer vent above the first-floor bathroom. I could hear them fly in and out. And once the babies hatched, I could hear them chirping. -Neringa Marija Perminas Atkinson

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For me, it is always the first time I hear the scree sound of red-wing blackbirds in the trees, the first and most visible sign that the first wave of our summer visitors has returned. -MacLean Gander

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It's spring for me when the goldfinches start coloring up and when the grackles and red-wing blackbirds are back. Also, when the robins are singing the bedtime songs at dusk. -Dot Lenhart

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When you finally flip that boiler switch to off! -Tim Wessel

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When the snow gets replaced with mud? -Audrey Powers

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When spring is here, we'll know it.... -Carol Levin

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Peepers at night. -Robin Rieske

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Robins on the lawn. -Kelly Salasin

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When buckets appear, as if by magic, on my maple trees. -Charlene Wakefield

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June 15th! -Brandie Starr

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Once the last snowstorm has passed. -Colin Tedford

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When the swamp maples start turning red. -Tom Martyn

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Spring has arrived when the air is humid and uncomfortable. -Daniel Kinoy

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Crocuses, of course. Thanks to the snow, ours are flattened sad little blue streaks on the ground. -Joyce Marcel

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The first trill of the red-wing blackbirds, the true birds of spring. -Marilyn Buhlmann

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When the ants come out foraging. They never show till after the last frost. -Roger Witherspoon

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The first robin, of course. He may be standing knee deep in snow, but that's spring. (If he's sitting within sight of a sap bucket, even better.) -Alexander B. Potter

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