Welcome to Word of the Week! Stay tuned for a new word each Friday to amp up your nature vocabulary!
Apricate [AP-ri-kayt] (verb): To bask in the sun.
This fun word comes from the latin word apricus, meaning exposed to the sun.
This winter, we saw many cold days, lots of snow, and lots of ice. However, the first day of spring is only a few days away and on Sunday, March 10, we changed our clocks and sprung forward by an hour for daylight savings. This means that as the spring weather continues to approach, we will have one more hour of warmth and sunshine in the afternoon and evening. During this exciting time, we can expect that the periods of continued warm weather will bring animals out of their winter hideouts and into the sun for some much needed aprication.
Some of these animals include Garter snakes, Painted turtles, and Mourning cloak butterflies. Even the animals that didn’t spend their winter hibernating, like Red-winged blackbirds and Blue jays, will enjoy the extra hours of daylight and will spend some of their time apricating.
On your next visit to High Park, look for apricating animals. And who knows? You might even find yourself taking some time to apricate!
