It Seems (a little) Like Spring!

Winter is slowly loosening its grip on Wisconsin. This year, we’ve had to wait longer than usual, it seems, rescheduling outdoor events, refraining from packing away winter clothes, and hastening out with binoculars to birdwatch and get our hands in the soil between raindrops and wind blasts.

Thankfully, the migrating birds arrive like clockwork, year after year, regardless of weather. What a welcome sight, over the last week or two, to see Yellow-shafted Flickers and Killdeer in the farm fields and along roadsides.

Eastern Phoebes are making their nest in the usual place under my house eave, and Northern and Orchard Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are at my feeders! Even if I have to lift my fleece ear band to hear them, the songs of the House Wren, Indigo Bunting, and Brown Thrasher reassure me of what season it really is.

The other evening, I used a Swarovski 80 mm HD Spotting Scope and our new Canon Powershot SD 4000 IS camera to get these photos of a resident White-breasted Nuthatch and handsome recent arrival: the White-crowned Sparrow.

Happy Spring to all!

Originally published on May 6, 2011