Daffodils And More

As spring fights to replace winter at this time of year, many outdoor people look for patches of yellow in the gray duff along back roads and waste areas. These patches of yellow are small yellow coltsfoot flowers. Coltsfoot is a native of Europe and Asia and is rumored to have medicinal uses. However, around here it is mainly a non-native plant that adds splashes of bright color to an otherwise drab landscape. I look for the little dandelion-like flowers each spring.

This year, I have noticed only a few coltsfoot flowers sprouting from areas where I spend a good deal of my late-March/early April time. However, I have run into larger, showier yellow flowers in plenty of out-of-the-way locations this spring. These are daffodils.

During my adventures to catch-and-release a few trout or to listen to the hollering of wild gobblers at daybreak this spring, I have seen more daffodils than coltsfoot adding a little brightness to the landscape.

Some of these daffodils sprout from places where people formerly lived but have long abandoned. I noticed one large patch of daffodils growing near the foundation of a barn that was torn down many years ago. Other daffodils brighten areas near the foundations of old buildings that collapsed and rotted away long before I was born. These hardy flowers must have been planted by people who were trying to add a little beauty to what may have been pretty rough existences. Anyhow, daffodils flowering in bleak spots in the outdoors add spots of beauty that most sportsmen appreciate.

On another note, I recently received a letter from a reader concerning the column I wrote about a pair of surveys regarding the opening day of rifle deer season, one commissioned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC). The reader reminded me that when an organization commissions a survey, the group expects the survey to support the position(s) that the sponsoring group advocates. The PGC's survey of 2,009 hunters did just that: It reflected that 60 percent of its respondents preferred a Saturday opening day as opposed to the traditional Monday, just as the PGC advocates. The writer reminded me that 2,009 respondents is a tiny percentage of Pennsylvania's licensed hunters.

A group spearheaded by sportsmen Dan Davila and Randy Santucci is working to have the Monday opener of rifle deer season reinstated and is gathering support. So far, the group has received more than 1,500 emails advocating the reinstatement of the Monday opener. To support this effort, shoot Santucci an email with several sentences of support to rsantucci2022@gmail.com.