Flowers, allergies and groundhogs way early this year

by Rob Peters | March 19, 2008 at 01:44 pm

1193 views | 6 Recommendations | 10 comments

Thirty years ago you'd be hard-pressed to see a cherry blossom, a robin, or a maniacal sneezing fit this time of year. We get these treats a little early nowadays according to many climate scientists, but that's not really a good thing. In this case the smell of roses might be worrisome.

Pollen is bursting. Critters are stirring. Buds are swelling. Biologists are worrying.

"The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast," Stanford University biologist Terry Root said.

Blame global warming.

The fingerprints of man-made climate change are evident in seasonal timing changes for thousands of species on Earth, according to dozens of studies and last year's authoritative report by the Nobel Prize-winning international climate scientists. More than 30 scientists told The Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at springtime across the country, in nearly every state.

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stevevoght

at 15:04 on March 19th, 2008

The robins are out en masse around Seattle, flitting through the bare trees and sparse early spring vegetation

stevevoght has contributed a photo to this story.

deegs

at 15:07 on March 19th, 2008

N. American Robins' arriving early. Ducks and geese pairing together already. This looks like an early spring for sure.

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Subharnab Majumdar

at 23:28 on March 19th, 2008

This was shot in South Dakota ... the robins came back the week I was there, but then the weather turned cold again ... and they were kind of fooled. But now the weather is back to warming up and so they are happy :)

Subharnab Majumdar has contributed a photo to this story.

fowlmouth76

at 06:44 on March 20th, 2008

American Robin searching for an early morning meal, during mid March in Connecticut.

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dastoltzfus

at 09:35 on March 20th, 2008

We had daffodils coming up in January,but these crocuses were the first to bloom.They do seem to be coming up earlier every year.

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carolinearmijo

at 12:43 on March 20th, 2008

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BOB RIEL

at 02:27 on March 22nd, 2008

My favorite time of year. One thing i noticed in Fresno,Ca. is there isnt as many bees as there use to be ??The blossoms might be early, and most of the bees are still sleeping

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BOB RIEL

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:51 on March 22nd, 2008

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. The blossoms do seem to be early this year. Trees and flowers were in full bloom the first week in March . I noticed my citrus blossoms are really lacking Bees. We use to get hundreds of Bees now we only see a few . WHAT HAPPEN ROB ???