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BRATTLEBORO

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View 7-day forecast

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Your support powers every story we tell. Please help us reach our year-end goal.

Donate Now

Your support powers every story we tell. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

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When the snow gets replaced with mud? -Audrey Powers

* * *

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

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Peepers at night. -Robin Rieske

* * *

Robins on the lawn. -Kelly Salasin

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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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