Warmish Night

This morning's low temperature was 33 (at our house). Good sign. In the last few days, we've seen our junco as well as spruce grouse, and of course, the chickadees, nuthatches and jays. Stellar jays, 3 of them, still occasionally coming in for peanuts. We have heard a woodpecker in the near woods, but have not seen him/her. Snowshoe hares are starting to turn tan. Our one black-capped chickadee with the deformed beak, is still surviving, but his poor beak is becoming more and more deformed. It's long, curved in opposite directions, almost like a crossbill, and he works very hard to scoop up seeds or peanut butter.

We hope to report some more spring birds soon.

Spring Visitor

Yesterday, late morning, a sharp-shinned hawk flew into the yard and sat on our back porch railing for a few moments. We were so surprised and pleased to see him up close. Needless to say, the backyard cleared out of all other birds. For about 10 minutes after he visited our porch, we saw no birds in the backyard. Last summer we had two different hawks come to perch in the backyard, and so we wondered if one of them had returned, or if they all know that there is prey to be had back there.

Spring has Sprung

Five below here this morning, but the days are getting longer. We saw our friend, the brown creeper, this morning. Also had our pine siskins, nuthatches, stellar jays, and chickadees in for feeding. The other day we watched as a redpoll sat in a spruce and ate spruce cone seeds, seeds fluttering away in the breeze, and reflected on why we haven't had redpolls to our feeders this winter. A spruce grouse walked over our deck the other day, on its way to some exposed gravel in the front yard under the spruces there.

Sunny days, cold nights. Looking forward to breakup.