Although there is a foot of snow still left to melt on the field and about two feet in the bush, a robin appeared today for the first time this year. It was hunting worms in the bare ground areas around the house, and it found one! Temperature today is + 9 C.
The robin is the first spring bird species I have seen. I say "species" because I saw what amounts to a flock of redbreasted nuthatches a couple days ago. We have local nuthatches here all winter but we only see a couple at a time. There were about a dozen in the group I saw prowling around the leaves in my tractor trail so I figured these were spring migrants.
Temperatures are about normal for this time of year in the Nolalu area which means we could start seeing bare ground out in the open in a week or so. Now we need to steel ourselves for the inevitable snows yet to come.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Making a landing strip for white pine seeds
I scratched up some bare dirt alongside my trail We have six white pine on our 65 acres in Nolalu and I would like to have more of these ma...
-
I've got a pretty good track record for picking the date for ice-out on Red Lake, usually pinpointing it within a few days. I thought ot...
-
The flat, soft needles of a balsam fir Spruce needles are like a stiff bottle brush I often hear Boreal newcomers mistake balsams an...
4 comments:
I saw a robin today also
There are one or two robins that spend the winter in Thunder Bay and area, according to the birdwatching column in the newspaper. Other than visiting bird feeders, they apparently live on dried berries. We have never had a winter robin at our feeders. Actually the only unusual bird was the Harris's Sparrow last winter.
Any Hairy or Harry redpoles this year?
Matt
We haven't seen a redpoll all winter nor any pine or evening grosbeaks. These are all normal winter birds here. No one has a clue as to where they are. Now Canada geese have arrived. I saw them on the Kaministiquia River, at Stanley, Friday. I haven't seen any flocks overhead yet. The weather is pretty close to normal for this time of year. People are falling through the ice, always a sign of spring. My guess for Red Lake ice-out at this juncture would be May 15.
Post a Comment