March is on, are you excited yet?

If nothing else, March is a month that answers many, many questions

The unmistakeable, delicious, texture of a fresh wild morel mushroom. (USFWS Digital Library photo)

March: Now it’s the month when I’m annually reminded that the term Spring Break only serves to remind me my children are grown.

March: That other month when just as the sun starts coming up at the right time of the morning the clocks change.

March: The month when, at some point, I will remember with regret that night in college when I learned to never again do really stupid things that lead to situations like puking green beer in the morning.

March: The month I always eventually remember my brother’s birthday. Happy (late) birthday, again, Bro!

March: Are Whiskey and I ready for field tests yet?

March: Have the purple martins / hummingbirds / monarchs arrived yet?

March: Are the morels popping up yet?

March: Had wild onions and scrambled eggs yet?

March: Are the sandbass starting to run yet?

March: Are the bass moving up yet?

March: Are the spoonbills running yet?

March: Are the toms gobbling yet?

March: Are the rattlesnakes out yet?

March: Are the bluebirds on the nest yet?

March: Should I start planting some garden items yet?

March: Do I know what I’m going to write about yet? Yes, probably about how much better this March is than last March and that I’ll be fully vaccinated by the time the month is over.

Wait, no, Whiskey (my Lab) just growled in his sleep at my feet as I wrote that so, apparently enough said there.

March is all about weather, I’ll write something useful about the weather.

And the forecast for the Sunday this column appears? Sucky—but more on that later.

But first, Spring Break

Maybe I’m all gray-bearded and not tuned in on Spring Break, but I still know enough that if you have a chance to take advantage of it you should be go for it!

And if you haven’t hopped on a Covid-friendly (Covid-protected? Covid-free?) flight outta here by now that means you’re looking for things to do in Oklahoma this week.

Truly, if you’re feeling run down by cabin fever—and you’re not one of the people completely obsessed by any number of the “yet” items listed above—then you probably want to get out and enjoy the outdoors with as little effort and planning as possible. If so, then zero in on Oklahoma State Parks.

My go-to person for Oklahoma State Parks info these days is Angelina Stancampiano at Sequoyah State Park. The Oklahoma Department of Tourism must appreciate her, too, because she was recently promoted from the naturalists position at Sequoyah to Senior Naturalist Coordinator—a statewide position.

The natural thing for a journalist to do with any public official brand new to a position is to put them on the spot, so I called Stancampiano and asked her to suggest which parks are better than all the others.

She was smart enough to offer suggestions but note that we have parks statewide, all of which have great things to offer. If you don’t know about Oklahoma’s parks start with the lists and maps at TravelOK.com. Once you have an idea where you might go, look up the Facebook page for that park (or parks).

“In the time of Covid we have started posting most things on Facebook and using EventBrite because we can easily communicate and notify people when things are cancelled,” Stancampiano said.

I told you she was smart, didn’t I?

We will have rainy days, sunny days, blustery days and crummy days, but all that matters in March is what is the overall result on water and soil temperatures.

At her home park of Sequoyah, an easy 35-40 minutes from Tulsa on the shores of Fort Gibson Lake, the Three Forks Nature Center is offering two bald eagle viewing tours on Wednesday and they have three snake programs set for Friday.

Yes, three snake programs.

“Last year everything was cancelled last minute because of Covid and this year I had nothing planned but we got the vaccine and thought, well, let’s plan some stuff,” Stancampiano said.

The eagle tours give folks a great chance to see eagles on their nests, Stancampiano said.

I imagine the snake programs in the outdoors amphitheater will be prime opportunities to ask, ‘are the rattlensakes are out yet?’ and to learn how to identify other species commonly seen on Facebook, like the snek, no-no noodle, danger noodle, linguine meanie, nope rope, sting string, or any number of other intriguing species.

Bernice State Park up on Grand Lake has a full schedule of activities, as do Roman Nose State Park, Lake Murray and of course, the tours will be running at Alabaster Caverns, Stancampiano said.

She did offer that one of her favorite places for an easy in-state getaway for maximum park visitation is Boiling Springs State Park, east of Woodward. With five parks in relatively close proximity, I couldn’t argue her choice.

“It’s a good place to say and take short day tours to Alabaster Caverns, Roman Nose, Gloss Mountain and Little Sahara,” she said.

Given the weather forecast for most of the week it’s not a bad idea, especially the idea of heading to the caves—where it’s always nice.

Wild onions sprout among henbit. Had your wild onions and scrambled eggs yet?

And as for that weather …

We will have rainy days, sunny days, blustery days and crummy days, but all that matters in March is what is the overall result on water and soil temperatures.

Water temperatures in the 50s cue the white bass spawn with males moving up first and females coming a week or so later, especially following a warm spring rain.

That 50-degree range holds for spoonbills too, but nothing gets the spoonies moving upstream like a good push of water.

Water temperatures in the upper 50s to mid-60s will cue largemouth bass to move up to spawn.

Water temperatures right around 60 degrees will have crappies moving to staging areas off spawning areas.

When the surface soil temperatures at 2 inches get right around 50 degrees the morel mushrooms will become more plentiful (see the Soil Temperatures maps at mesonet.org) for reference.

Air temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s with sunshine will have rattlesnakes coming out of their dens to sun on the rocks and when the weather is consistently that warm they will begin to disperse and hunt.

And the purple martins have begun to arrive, the first monarchs have been reported in southern Oklahoma and the hummingbirds could start showing up any day after we get some warmth and a good wind from the south.