WOODCHUCK: Andy Heffner of Ormsby called to tell us he recently saw the “weirdest thing I’ve seen in my life.”

Andy looked out his window to see a furry object by the birdfeeder that had its back to him and was “round like a basketball,” he said. “I thought, what is that ball of fur?”

“At first, I thought it was a rabbit; about that time, it turned around, and I could see its head.”

It was a woodchuck.

Andy explained he throws black sunflower seeds on the snow-covered ground by the feeders for the mourning doves. “He was busy getting after those seeds,” he tells us.

Andy thought it was weird the woodchuck stayed curled in a ball, even as it subsequently ran away between the two rows of pine trees on his property.

“I have never seen a woodchuck like that,” he said, wondering how it ran curled up. “That thing stayed up in a hump just like a ball.”

Also, Andy recently went to Port Allegany, and on the way saw a woodchuck on the gravel by the road that was about the size of an eight-week old kitten.

“It’s usually the end of May or June before I see little woodchucks like that,” he said. “Must be spring is here. I don’t know why the snow keeps coming down.”

He’s also spotted his first robins of the season, along with red-winged blackbirds, starlings and juncos.

Andy’s thrilled to see temperatures coming this weekend that will be warm enough to melt the snow. He’s been waiting to enjoy one of his favorite springtime treats.

“I’m so hungry for leek sandwiches,” Andy said.

He just puts a little butter and a sprinkle of salt on Italian bread with leeks. According to Andy, he probably started eating leeks when he was about 3 years old, and he’s been a fan ever since.

“I think there’s an addiction to those things,” he said. “I have craved those things all my life.”