Spring Is Here!

The first half of March has been action-packed.  Spring is definitely here, as evidenced by the flowering trees/shrubs, the constant chattering that marks the beginning of the breeding season, and the slow molting of American Goldfinches into their summer plumage.  In addition, migration has brought some changes.  A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, most likely on its way to cooler climates for the summer, was seen foraging through trees in our yard this morning.  The Townsend's Warbler - a regular at our suet feeders this winter - has not been seen for over a week now and probably won't be seen again until November.  This saddens me somewhat, as he visited multiple times as day and was surprisingly tame (he would feed with me standing only 2 feet away).  But life goes on.  There has been an abrupt increase of year-round natives as well, most of which had not been seen in our yard before.  A Steller's Jay discovered that we feed peanuts a couple of weeks ago and has become a semi-regular since.  Lesser Goldfinches had never been seen on our property before, but have been regulars over the past week.  A Spotted Towhee made its debut in our yard this morning.  A female Yellow-Shafted (Northern) Flicker stopped by for some suet last weekend, a departure from the highly-abundant Red-Shafted Flickers that we see daily.  After seeing nothing but male Downy Woodpeckers since moving here, a female has visited our suet basket in consecutive days now.  I have also seen either high numbers or more frequent visits from Varied Thrush, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and Chestnut-backed Chickadees.  The birdbath was moved to the area under the bushes in front of our livingroom and the results have been very positive.  Nuthatches, both species of Chickadees, and Varied Thrush have all been seen drinking out of it, and one of the latter even bathed in it.

And in sad news, I came home from work on Friday to find a dead Varied Thrush near our doorstep.  It most likely collided with one of our front windows.

Since the wife has been out of town on business and March Madness has failed to spark my interest, I've been taking a lot of photos recently...


Townsend's Warbler eating from flowers on our tree.  This is one of the last times that I saw him.


Male American Goldfinch molting into summer plumage


Lesser Goldfinch, most likely a juvenile male

An expansion is currently underway.  Stay tuned for details.

• Posted at Sunday, March 18, 2007 11:04 PM
• In General Category | Permalink