JAITAR  THAW 
Each year, after the midwrinter bizzards, there oomes a thai  night 
the tinkle of dripxing water is heard in the land. It brins strane sti 
not only to creatures abed for the night, but t~o sor-e who have been as
lee 
the winter.  The hibemating skuk, curled up in his deep den, uncrls hi 
and ventures forth to prowl    *tworld for breafat, draging hie bell 
melting snow. His track marks one of the earliest  at ble events in tha 
of beginnings and ceasings which we call a year. 
The events comprising the annual cycle are innuerable. Visconsin, 
exmle, ha about 350 species of birds, 90 m       Imas, 174f fishes, 72 amphi

reptiles, ?0,OO0 insects, and 1500 higher plants. The life of each of th

22,000 species consists of a sequence of events, each a response~ to the
a 
season. No naturalist can hope to recognize, much less to record, more t

microscopic fraction of this prodigious drami . 
May of the events of the annual cycle recur year afteryeria e 
order. A year-to-year record of  this order is a record of the rates at w1

solar energy flows to and  thrug  living thins. They aIe the arteries o:

land. 
O~ie he learns the sequaence of' events, the natralist falis easily i 
not-very-obJective role of successful seer and prophet. He may even fal 
love with the plants and animals which so regulaly fulfill his oredictio

he may harbor the pleasant illusion that he is "'clling shots"
for the bi 
than vice versa. 
For such folk, the first skw  track is New Year. 
 
wr 
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