The spring equinox arrived exactly at 10:33 am CDT March 20.

The term equinox comes from the Latin word “equinoxium,” meaning “equality between day and night.” And vernal also comes from Latin and means “spring.” The Earth rotates along an imaginary line that runs from North Pole to South Pole. It’s called the axis, and this rotation is what gives us day and night.

However, the axis tilts at 23.5 degrees, as NASA explains. That positions one hemisphere of the planet to get more sunlight than the other for half of the year’s orbit around the sun. This discrepancy in sunlight is what triggers the seasons.

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With Springtime, the groundhogs are back.

The one groundhog looks like it is Mabel. However, I don't know who the second groundhog may be. He's about 1/3 larger than Mabel and probably a male. But I don't recognize him. As Mabel did with her two yearling pups last Spring, she's sticking very close to this new male. His nibbling on her back and rump is something that I've never seen one of her pups do in the same way. When they were little babies, the pups would chew on all parts of their mom. As they grew older, she prohibited that; even if she didn't make them leave home.

Groundhogs are supposed to be normally solitary animals that will force their kids to move out soon after they've been weaned. Instead, Mabel kept her all 6 of her puppies extremely close and bonded to her for their entire first Summer Season. During their second Summer, two of the pups still remained with Mabel; just not quite as closely attached. Nevertheless, all three were seen closely together (like when they were young pups) from time to time. Plus, the two pups often returned to their mom's burrow with her. So, it seems as if Mabel (although more aloof the second Summer) was not a totally solitary critter who had cut her family ties.

Because our weather this Spring has been really strange (a balmy 80 degrees one day and a frigid 5 degree the next), I have no idea of when the groundhogs really came out of Wintertime hibernation. Last year I saw Mable 10 days earlier than this year. Although I kept a generalized eye out for her return, I first saw Mabel yesterday on the last day of Winter this year. I was then quite surprised to see her with a new friend on the next day: the first day of Spring.

I truthfully don't know if the male now with her is one of her pups that somehow surprisingly got very big (in comparison to last Summer) during the Winter, or if she now has a suitor. He's a very pretty groundhog. But his face is not familiar to me. Both Mabel and this male, now with her, look to be in super condition. Hibernation did not seem to be hard on either one of them. I am very, very happy to see that. The male does not seem to be at all frightened of my presence; so, he may be a pup that has changed in looks. I really don't know. Usually, groundhogs are very spooky around people they are not familiar with. However, having grown up "knowing me", Mabel's pups were very tolerant of my presence and would come up within a couple of feet of me to graze. Mabel (not habituated as a young pup as her own pups were) always remained a little shyer. Nevertheless, she also learned that I meant her no harm and would not run away.

I would expect that if the male with Mabel in the photo is not one of her pups (that know me), he wouldn't have remained as calm while I was photographing them. Past groundhogs (before Mabel) to set up in our backyard were always very skitterish and would run as soon as they noticed any human. But after watching Mabel and her family since the Spring of 2020, I've learned that groundhog behavior doesn't always follow the books. Different individuals have their own way of doing things.

Anyhow, to start Springtime, Mabel is back, and she has a large male with her. Time will tell who he is. Meanwhile, just seeing Mabel back and looking very healthy was a wonderful First Day of Spring for me.