Red looking silver maples?

[Hunt4sap]

I'm going to try to get a picture of what I'm trying to describe but it looks like small red hairs coming out of my maple tree buds and I'm wondering if that is the start of a leaf bud or a flower bud and what that means for how long I have to be collecting sap?22231

[Pdiamond]

I think flower buds come on first.

[littleTapper]

Flower buds. Keep going; they don't affect the sap. Given your location, you have some time left, but probably not a ton until the leaf buds start to swell more and sap turns buddy. My silvers start to get off flavors consistently around 3/25.