Making history, picking night crawlers in February: Bowman’s Bits

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A first: picking night crawlers in February.
Credit: Dale Bowman

A week ago today, during the height of the February heat wave, Ron Wozny emailed that I should be watching to pick crawlers with the rains.

Funny thing was that just a couple hours early I had been doing just that while out doing my morning ramble with Lady, our family’s mutt. And had not seen a single one.

Well, this morning, in the damp balminess after the overnight rain, I thought I smelled crawlers on the still-wet pavement.

Bingo, on a street, I did not expect, I found the first crawler I ever picked in February, even if it is the last day of the shortest month. It’s the crawler pictured above. And I have lived every one of my winters in the north.

OK, I only found two more small ones. All the same, I picked crawlers in February.

Put that in the record books.


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