Blue is one of my favourite colours

Our first Eastern Bluebird of the year made an appearance tonight - a beautiful, bright male. He spent a very leisurely 10 or 15 minutes checking out our backyard, including the nesting boxes, clothesline, pond, and feeder holders. Hopefully he'll stick around - and bring a lady with him. :) Things could get interesting if they decide they want the same house the Tree Swallows seem to be thinking about claiming.

Last night at the dog park I got my first really good look at a Pileated Woodpecker. The ones I'd seen before were always in shadow or silhouette, but this one kept sticking his head around the tree into the sunlight. So pretty!

I need to start taking my camera to the dog park. An Osprey flew over a few times on Tuesday night, we've had a Meadowlark, some very loud cardinals... At the very least, we need to take binoculars, so we have a better chance of IDing some of the birds that don't come quite close enough to ID without help.

No hummingbirds yet, though we've got two feeders out for them. We do, however, have a ton of butterflies. Apparently there's a mass migration of Red Admirals going on, and yeah - they're everywhere. And they're so fast they keep fooling us into thinking it could be a hummer. Bah.

NOW it feels like Spring

Last night at the dog park, there was an Eastern Meadowlark up in a tree singing its little heart out for all to hear. Literally - it was LOUD. But so, so pretty.

This morning, I knew Spring was really here. Our Tree Swallows are back! A pair of them were hanging out on the clothesline this morning, which made me soooo happy.

Meadowlarks and Swallows are on my "To get GOOD pictures of this year" list. Here's hoping! :)

More spring arrivals

We had a brutal cold snap last week that I thought was going to kill all my plants - not so! They're still growing like crazy, and I think we're still going to have a really early spring blooming.

Our first Northern Flicker of the year showed up in our yard on Sunday, foraging for bugs where our yard meets the unplowed farm field.

I actually ended up putting out our oriole and hummingbird feeders last week, because the migration maps are showing them much farther North than they usually are this time of year. Since it's too early for most of the nectar-rich flowers to be out yet, feeders are essential to help early migrants survive. And just a few minutes ago I received a report of a hummingbird spotted in Guelph (which is about 20 - 25 minutes from us). I'll be putting out a second hummer feeder tonight, I think.