New year has a special purpose for all

Happy New Year. The old year is nearly over and the start of a new one is hours away. At least, that’s what the calendar — and the tax collector — says. On a cosmic scale, Jan. 1 marks the start of another orbit of Earth around the sun, during which our planet will travel some 583,416,000 miles in a little more than 365.2 days.

We usher in a new year when the days are short and the nights long and cold. But for countless plants, animals, birds, insects and other wildlife, it’s just another day in winter. Unlike humans all over the world, who will pause at midnight tonight to celebrate the new year, the wild world will take no notice of the transition.

Vast numbers of Georgia’s wild plants and creatures are dormant or hibernating now. Hardwood trees stand in deep slumber, bare of their leaves. Zillions of bulbs, seeds and insect eggs sleep undisturbed in the ground or in rotting logs, protected from winter’s cold.

You might say that they are waiting for their new year — spring. In the natural world, spring indeed is perhaps the most appropriate time to celebrate a new year. It is when untold numbers of new buds, bulbs and seeds sprout and send out new roots and leaves, covering the landscape with every shade of green. New generations of insects flit, buzz and crawl about all over the place. Birds and wild animals bring forth new life. Wildflowers sprinkle the woods and fields with beautiful colors.

As we celebrate our new year, the sun already is leaning toward the first day of spring, the vernal equinox, which will occur March 20. With the winter solstice nine days behind us, the days are getting longer. The sun today is in the sky nearly four minutes longer than it was a week ago. By the end of January, the days will be 45 minutes longer than they are now.

But I don’t want to rush things. Winter also is to be enjoyed. The limb patterns of now-leafless trees, for instance, have a remarkable beauty as they stand etched against a winter sky. This is also a good time to appreciate the evergreens — hollies, pines, ferns, cedars, hemlocks — that stand out in the otherwise drab winter woods.

Even in winter, there is new life. In Georgia’s coastal waters, rare and endangered right whales are giving birth to their calves. Across the state, bald eagles and great horned owls are tending newly hatched babies in their nests.

In the sky

The Quadrantid meteor shower is visible through Friday night and reaches a maximum of 100 meteors per hour on Wednesday night. Look to the north throughout the night.

Earth reaches perihelion (closest to the sun) at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The moon will be first quarter on Sunday, rising out of the east around lunch time and setting in the west around midnight, said David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Science Museum.

Mercury is very low in the east just before sunrise. Venus is low in the west just after dark.

Mars rises out of the east just after midnight.

Jupiter is in the east around dusk and will appear near the moon Monday evening.

Saturn rises out of the east about four hours before sunrise.