When I left for Northern Ontario a week ago, it was unusually cold.  And by the time I was a hundred miles into my five-hundred-mile trip, it was snowing.  Yet some bird signs of spring were there: mostly male red-winged blackbirds already at their post over their chosen nesting sites—and looking a bit harried by winds that were throwing single-digit wind chills at them.  The stiff winds also made the four-mile drive over the Mackinac Bridge a bit of an adventure.

Here and there a few geese and ducks had already separated from their migratory flocks into pairs—or even flying alone looking for a mate.  These lone waterfowl were certainly drakes or ganders, since the females are definitely NOT alone at this time of the year!  Not a single robin was yet to be seen

But, man, what a difference the big weekend warm-up made!  The most obvious spring bird sign along the still snowy verges of the northern highways on my way home was hungry crows and ravens who were feasting on the carcasses of deer and other road kill the warm-up was gradually revealing and thawing.  Deer that had survived the heavy snow and the hunting season were converging in large herds on fields of emerging corn stubble and meadow grasses.

By the time Tuesday morning came around it seemed as though spring was “busting out all over.”  Robins were already working the lawns in spite of the fact that the worms were still several inches below the surface struggling to get up through the recently frozen sod.  A row of crabapple trees was being relieved of its old fruit by a large flock of cedar waxwings and a lone male bluebird was heading into the old orchard to pick out one of its many nest holes.

In fact, some of the gnarly old apple trees have been incorporated into the landscape of a golf course and a couple commercial buildings.  So the country club is amiably shared in spring and summer by golfers and bluebirds.  In the fall, however, the sharing is not as amiable: dozens of geese, many of them newly matured goslings, grazing on the grass, pecking at fallen apples, and creating unplanned golfing hazards.

This morning, though chilly again, the birds were still active—especially the male cardinals singing and bragging on the tree tops or chasing each other around and through the bushes and shrubbery.  And the robins too are staking their nesting claims in the orchard, which will be a virtual bird nursery in another month: brown thrashers, goldfinches, yellow warblers, chickadees, mourning doves, song sparrows, cardinals, and robins.

I will be sorry when this tiny urban “wilderness” is finally sold off and developed.

See you outdoors!

Dean