If you are a winter outdoor enthusiast, stop reading this now and turn the page. If you live to ski, snowshoe, skate, fish on ice, or snowmobile, you may not like what I must say. Full disclosure requires me to admit that in my younger years, I participated in all the above to one degree or another.

But as I grow older, I find myself a senior citizen reaching out for signs of spring and melting snow rather than praying for more snow and cold.

April showers may bring May flowers and migrant birds, but February brings subtle signs of the end of winter. Neighborhood male cardinals, ablaze in crimson glory, will soon belt out their territorial whereabouts.

Skunks, stirred out of hibernation by the late January thaw, venture cross country looking for love. Likewise, muskrats, more apt to be looking for food above frozen ponds, often become victims of road traffic this time of the year.

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