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Outdoors: Springtime, you're on

A city's bright exterior lighting lights up the night sky.

Anyone involved in the performing arts knows that a cue is a signal to begin.

For a musical ensemble, a conductor might use a baton, their hands or even a glance to cue performers.

An actor might use a line of dialogue, music or a sound such as a knock or a ringing telephone to signal their entrance.

Dancers count, use musical cues or sometimes even depend on a subtle change in lighting to know when to start.

Nature often takes its cue from lighting.

The International Dark Sky Week starts this Saturday.

According to the International Dark Sky Association, “For billions of years, all life has relied on Earth’s predictable rhythm of day and night."

Consequently, a certain photoperiod, a specific ratio of daylight to dark, is the cue for many migrating birds, breeding frogs and germinating plants, but not all.

Some plants and animals respond to other cues: a certain temperature, chemical changes in the soil, the amount of available moisture.

April showers do bring some May flowers.

Something eventually will cue the peeping peepers, the dancing swarms of spring insects and our singing birds.

Spring will come, and soon, I hope. But not too soon.

Along with Dark Sky advocates this week, I hope that our pervasive artificial night lighting doesn’t give the lighting cue too early.

"Outdoors with Coggin Heeringa" can be heard every Wednesday on Classical IPR.