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Woodstock Willie predicted an early spring for the second year in a row Sunday on the Woodstock Square, but it was a new, baby groundhog who did so this year.
Willie, whose real name is Chooch, is 8 months old but he was always going to deliver the prognostication this year, groundhog handler Mark Szafran said.
Last year’s groundhog, Woodstock Wendy, recently passed away at age 9. The lifespan for groundhogs is eight to 10 years, Szafran said.
Willie showed his face in public for the first time Thursday evening at the Welcoming of the Groundhog inside the Old Courthouse, where he was introduced to the crowd and then was placed on a table where he chowed down on a carrot.
He also got to meet his costumed mascot doppelganger backstage Thursday, according to the Woodstock Groundhog Days Facebook page.
But on Sunday, as the photo line stretched out of the Square as people waited their turn for a moment with Willie, the groundhog was fairly mobile and wiggly as Szafran held onto him.
“They don’t like being restrained,” Szafran said.
He was fine for the first 10 to 15 minutes but not an hour and a half, Szafran said.
There was a carrot on the table in front of Willie, who made his debut before the crowd of several thousand people, many of whom stayed more than an hour after the prognostication to snap a pic with the groundhog himself. He had been nibbling a carrot, Szafran said.