As of: February 17, 2024, 7:43 a.m
By: Josef Ametsbichler
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A young woman enjoys the sunshine, which is unusually warm for February, in her garden in Ebersberg - primroses, winter aconites and March cups do the same.
© Stefan Rossmann
The mild temperatures in the Ebersberg district are luring plants and animals out of hibernation - this worries conservationists.
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- birds chirping, storks clattering, blooming primroses, March cups and hazel bushes, and around 17 degrees: anyone in the Ebersberg district who steps out of the door these days who is keen on literature will be reminded of the verses from Goethe's Faust, with which the poet laureate celebrates the arrival of spring.
The Easter walk is one of the most quoted lines in German literary history because it fits so beautifully every year.
With the small flaw that he plays on Easter Sunday - and not in mid-February.
Streams and streams are freed from ice by the lovely, invigorating look of spring, hope and happiness green in the valley;
The old winter, in its weakness, Withdrew into harsh mountains.
Goethe: Faust I (1808)
Despite all the bud idyll and joy about the mild temperatures, the early arrival of spring is causing concern for local conservationists.
When Goethe published his Faust in 1808, he wrote about the Easter sun: “It wants to enliven everything with colors;
But there's a lack of flowers in the area, so she takes preened people for them." Since then, climate change has happened - and it's getting warmer more and more often, earlier and earlier.
And the flowers bloom many weeks before Easter Sunday, when they would normally have taken their time.
Usually there are no more.
Regina Wegenmann, Federation of Nature Conservation, about the onset of spring
“Normally there aren’t any more,” says Regina Wegenmann, managing director of the Ebersberg district group of the Federal Nature Conservation Association (BN).
She says she spotted catkins, liverworts and daphne last week while walking along the abandoned railway embankment between Moosach and Glonn.
“It’s actually nice, but the late frost can damage the plants if they bloom too early.”
A spontaneous winter return can also harm animals that venture out of cover too early, adds Benedikt Sommer, chairman of the Ebersberg district group in the State Association for Bird Protection.
The Forstinninger observed blackbirds courting in front of his front door.
And white storks that are already returning from their winter quarters in southern Spain or North Africa.
“It’s quite unusual for this time of year,” he says.
“The next step is for them to move on to breeding.”
Danger: Late frosts with devastating effects
If late frosts come, it could make foraging more difficult because of a blanket of snow or because the insects are missing.
In the worst case scenario, the nesting box results in a tragedy like Goethe's.
“The critters are like us humans – they like to be deceived,” says bird protection board member Benedikt Sommer with a Faustian undertone.
The animal is wrong as long as it strives.
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For conservationists, early spring means that haste is now required.
“We’re stressed because it’s starting again,” says Sommer.
The LBV is already taking care of the nest box cleaning.
The toad rescuers are getting nervous among their colleagues from the BN, reports district manager Wegenmann.
The twelve amphibian protection fences, which protect the animals from being run over during their spawning migration, will actually only be installed at the end of February.
Toads and hedgehogs: Conservationists fear “carnage on the streets”
In 2023, the Glonn local group alone had collected 212 frogs by February 19th.
This year the volunteers are already patrolling the crawl spaces - so far without any sightings.
But when it starts, it's right, says Wegenmann: “Toads usually run all at once, over about three to four days or nights.
If you miss that window, there will be carnage on the streets – not pretty.”
The hedgehogs also wake up from hibernation far too early, said the BN spokeswoman: “We hope that the animals will fall asleep again as soon as it gets colder again.
Actually, they should sleep until the end of April.” LBV board member Sommer puts it more pessimistically, fearing that the nocturnal stingers will soon be run over on the side of the road again.
The BN appeals to garden owners not to use the warm days to do major cleaning outside: “Please remember that the hedgehogs still need their places to sleep,” says Wegenmann.
And: “A walk is a nice alternative to working in the garden.” She puts it in the manner of Goethe, who ends the start of Faust’s Easter walk with the happiness of being outside:
Here is the people's true heaven. Satisfied, big and small shout: Here I am human, here I can be.
Goethe, Faust I
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