New leaves

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No matter where you are in Iya, it is always such a steep slope, hundreds of meters of altitude difference from the bottom to the top of the valley.  The steep slopes make the living difficult, but there are few goods that comes with the slopes.  One of them can be seen in the picture above.  In Iya, you can see the change of season not just along the time lines, but also along the vertical lines. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see new leaves coming out on the trees near bottom, but not so much on the trees toward the top.  It is a slight joy of life here to watch the Spring creeps up the slope slowly, day by day.  

In the Autumn, it is the reverse.  I enjoyed watching the coloring of the leaves creeping down the slope slowly.  

Unfortunately, much of the surface of Iya is covered by evergreen cedar trees.  I get to watch the colorful change of seasons only on these narrow strips of natural woods surrounded by cedar plantations.  

More and more Spring

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Past weekend I had to leave Iya for a while.  In other parts of the world cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and in some cases already past the full bloom and petals were falling.  In Iya the blossoms were just the buds still.  Seasons were moving on without me knowing about it.

But when I returned to Iya it was full bloom here as well.  Spring is a pleasant season by itself, but it is more so the harsher the winter is.  This past winter was the harshest winter I have ever experienced so far (water frozen, below freezing temperature inside the house, roads covered with ice so that I could not use cars...) so this spring is going to be really great.  But, with the spring comes the pollens in the air, and in Iya where there are so much plantations the pollens are so much harsher.  Things never go all pleasant at once I guess.

Spring

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Click to enlarge

Almost immediately after I saw that lizard out of hibernation, the temperature started rising and butterflies appeared everywhere.  As if the lizard coming out of hibernation was the cue for temperature to warm up, instead of the other way around.  That lizard was ahead of its time.

Timing is extremely important for the survival.  If an individual comes out of hibernation early and gets a head start, it has more time to gain food and longer growing seasons, and overall stand advantageous against its competitors.  But if it comes out too early then it would spend more energy to fight off cold, and stand at disadvantage.  The competition for survival is a tough one.  But that lizard came out at the most ideal timing.  It is just simply amazing how the nature works.

Unfortunately, I hear the climate change is causing troubles to these timings.  For example, a migratory birds judge timing based on the position of the sun and the length of the daylight hours. Insects hibernating in the soil has to judge the timing based on the temperature.  The climate change is making the insects come out of hibernation earlier, where as the birds that used to migrate just in time to catch these insects are finding themselves short of food.

On the side note, I am not that knowledgeable of the insects.  I do not know the names of the species of those on the pictures.  When I was a small child I used to look at the books and guides about insects as well, but sadly I forgot most of it....