Least weasel

Early evening yesterday, saw a tiny weasel running through the backyard grasses and in and out of little miniature tunnels, he was so small, maybe a least weasel but seemed much shorter than the 8-10" they are supposed to be. Also heard a varied thrush late last night, around 10:30 pm. Always a lovely sound hearing thrushes at sundown. Have been seeing myrtle's warblers and robins, white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows. Yesterday saw a baby redpoll being fed by an adult.

New Returning Bird

This afternoon while watching for the partial solar eclipse (which we never really saw because of overcast) I saw a Myrtle's warbler fly into the bird bath and splash around. First one of the season. Yippee!

Waterfowl

Today we saw a ring-necked duck male and female in a little pond which is down the road from us about 4 miles, one of the little areas that holds meltwater in spring and early summer and later dries up. This spring the ditches and swampy areas are very full of water, great for migration. The Kenai River flats yielded a couple of teal today, also American widgeons. The larger flocks of sandhill cranes seemed to have moved on. We are anxiously awaiting the black-bellied plovers. White-crowned sparrows, kinglets and other songbirds as well - every evening and morning we listen for them.

Spring Birds

This morning we heard a robin and a junco singing in the backyard. Finally! We plan to visit the Kenai River flats later today. Still a lot of snow, but it's melting.

Rockin Robin

Apparently there are robins in the vicinity - not our yard but yards within 10 miles. We saw a junco two weeks ago, then not again for a week, but they're in the area. Swans, snow geese, Canada geese, mallard, pintails, all showing up on the Kenai River Flats. A friend said they've heard ruby-crowned kinglets, other warblers and sandhill cranes. So - things are happening!

Spring

Warming up finally, snow melting, sun, temps in the 40's. This afternoon at 1 PM, saw our first male junco of the season. What a nice treat! Earlier, a sharp-shinned hawk zoomed around trying to get a redpoll. Never saw if he was successful, might have been.

Sun is Returning

This morning, while shoveling in the early morning, but already light out, we saw a sharp-shinned hawk up at the top of a spruce tree, watching the whole back yard. Yesterday, early morning, we saw a spruce grouse out back. Longer days are nice! still cold and snowy tho.