Colours of Spring

Man, our yard was a colourful - and busy - place tonight. At one point, we had a Cardinal, Baltimore Oriole, Tree Swallows, a Barn Swallow, Bluebirds, Goldfinches, and House Finches, plus the usual suspects, like Downy Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatch, Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and five species of sparrows. This collection included three first-of-the-season arrivals: Oriole (soooo happy to see this guy), White-crowned Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow. Now all we're missing is Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Hummingbirds. Today was Dave's day in the "When will we see our first hummer?" pool. It's getting dark, now, so I think it's safe to say he didn't win. My guess is tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. ;-) Anybody else have any Spring migrants moving through?

Arrivals en masse

A couple of Song Sparrows made an appearance at our feeders this past weekend. Haven't seen them since.

The second annual Red-winged Blackbird occupation has apparently begun. I was so happy to see the first couple in our yard last week. I should've known better. Yesterday, I discovered that they'd decided to take up residence in our woods again - all you can hear is hundreds of RWBs calling to each other. The noise is unbelievable. Last year was so wet and the woods so boggy that the RWBs were there for a month or more, and I thought they'd never leave. I think they're lovely birds, but not in numbers like that.

Spring arrivals continue

Despite the snow squall that was going through the area at the time, a male red-winged blackbird was singing his heart out in our front yard this morning. Definitely a sign that spring is here. We also had a pair of House Finches in our hopper feeder, and they only tend to show up once the worst of winter is over. There were also more than 50 American Goldfinches swarming the feeders in the backyard today, and some of the males are starting to brighten up as their breeding plumage slowly starts to come in.

Last night we saw something we'd never seen before. A flock of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Tundra Swans flew over the farm behind ours. They were too far away for pictures, but close enough that we could ID them through binoculars, fortunately. But my god. It was an endless cloud of huge, snow-white birds. It was pretty spectacular. It's too bad they didn't fly right over the house, or I could've added them to our Yard Birds list. ;-)