Today, spring began its reign ... at least the meteorological one, because the phenological one has been in force for several weeks, while we will have to wait 20 more days for the calendar one. What is phenology? It is a field whose field of activity are the phenomena occurring in the world of flora, fauna and inanimate nature, and more precisely, weather changes during the year. In terms of phenological natural observations, the best objects are... plants. It is the whole world of botany that is directly influenced by atmospheric changes taking place in a given place. Trees, shrubs and flowers react to the climate and soil, thus they are the most important sign of natural changes in a given habitat. In this case of phenological observations, we speak of phytophenology.

 

Currently, in the European Bison Show Farm, apart from the early signs of spring in the form of blooming witch hazel bushes, hazelnuts and bulbous plants, you can admire something else - peacocks beautifully dressed in colorful tails. Indian peacock roosters lose their tails in the summer, the winter period is the time when they lack the so-called feathers. uppertail cover. In late winter and early spring, the males reapply their attractive and colorful trains, in the amount of about 200 feathers of majestic color. Some of our proud charges have even started mating dances. Visitors who are lucky during their walks in the Pszczyna park can also hear the clangor of flying cranes and observe flocks of geese dragging across the sky. In this case of observation we are dealing with ornitophenology, i.e. the phenology of birds.

 

Therefore, at this time of year, we can confidently say that we are dealing with the dawn of spring or early spring.

 

Photo: Michał Makowski