Greetings...
I've often felt that Spring is the only advantage of living in Virginia
instead of Massachusetts. Mornings like today (30 March) drive that point
home. I stepped out of my house at seven forty-five this morning not only to
a sixty degree air temperature, but to a forest alive with birdsong. Many of
the songs have been heard over the last month, but not the Louisiana
Waterthrush that has returned to its little stretch of stream each spring
since 1997 that I have lived here. This morning was the first day this year
that I have heard it sing. In other years I have been able to find the bird
a day or two earlier by looking for droppings on the rocks in the stream and
by catching a glimpse of it as it flies the stream bed. Not the case this
year. The first clue I have had of it was the song I heard this morning.
Still hanging in the yard are the thirty or forty Purple Finches that I have
had all winter. Some days there are many more on the feeders; typically I
can only see thirty or forty in a sweep of the feeders and trees. They have
been singing for a month or so. Juncos are still here in good numbers (at
least twenty), some singing. Sapsucker, creeper, and both kinglet species
have all spent the winter here. All are still being seen, but none have been
heard in song. Goldfinches are brightening here as they are everywhere.
Red-shouldered Hawks are nesting somewhere nearby, seen and heard daily. I
can also hear a singing Field Sparrow through the trees, calling from my
powerline cut that runs a couple hundred yards away from my house. Today is
the first day this year I have heard one sing from my window. Nuthatches are
"singing" incessantly this morning, drowning out the chickadees, titmouses,
and cardinals. There has also been a push of Hermit Thrushes the last few
days. I usually only hear one or two in the yard most days, but yesterday I
had at least five calling birds, but what was more interesting was that I saw
or flushed another six birds on the half mile gravel road out of my
neighborhood.
Tomorrow it is spring in Boise which I suspect won't be as hospitable as
here.
Cheers...
Todd
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Todd M. Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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