Spring ahead

March 17, 2008

St Paddy’s Day opens at 30 degrees with a bright blue sky and the first crocuses showing themselves -- just ahead of daffodils that look ready to pop. Buds are everywhere and the lawn is barely beginning to green, just in time for the day’s celebration.

A male white-breasted nuthatch graced the niger feeder for a few seconds yesterday, then flitted off to the choke cherry tree where I had time to verify his ID. Also on the scene were the now-regular pair of downies and a red-bellied woodpecker, all of whom have been enjoying the suet cake hung halfway between the deck and the cherry tree. A year ago, one cake lasted from January to the end of March. This year, I have had to put a new one up each month as woodpeckers and starlings (the most aggressive regulars) have been joined at the dining cage by a mockingbird, chickadees and even a house sparrow or two on occasion.

I caught just a flash (the white tail patch) of a flicker on the east side of the pond. Robins abound – nearly three dozen were in the trees when Eileen and I returned from a walk on Sunday and a dozen or more are scattered around today. I’ll skip the list of regulars but note that a blue jay seems to be frequenting the area now and the first red-wing blackbirds arrived this weekend. At mid-afternoon, a black-backed gull dragged the corpse of an eight-inch bass onto the dock and proceeded to make lunch of it.

March 18, 2008

At Belmont Lake SP today I spied a batch of ringed-neck ducks and a dozen or so ruddy ducks floating apart from the usual resident Canada geese and mallards. A pied billed grebe was consorting with the ringed-necks.

A week or so earlier I had seen close to 20 grebes on the lake, apparently stopping for a meal while headed back north. At about the same time (early March) I came across a flock of snow buntings at Robert Moses SP. It was my first sighting of this species which, according to my Birds of New York State, is frequently on site there in the winter, taking a respite from the arctic where it spends the summers. There were at least 50 individuals in the flock which swept back and forth from place to place in the parking lots at Field 5. They are distinctive chatterers with a blazing white-and-black wing flash in the air. A nice discovery for me.

March 20 – the first day of spring

At sunset last night, an egret appeared in the tree midway down the east bank of our pond, the surest sign of the return of warmer weather. Apparently the scout for our usual summer visitors, he was decked out in breeding feathers, although bedraggled by a pouring rain. There this morning before dawn and joined by a black-crowned night heron sitting on an opposite snag, he was gone by sunrise. His arrival is three days ahead of last year (four really, since we got an extra day in February this year). And last year, the first egret was in 10 days ahead of the 2006 calendar date. Global warming?

Fairly cool weather and high winds blew in as the front moved through this morning and it was nippy by midday, when I spotted another harbinger of the season – a muskrat. We didn’t see any last year, a worrying change from the usual furry visitors. Hopefully, we are back to normal. It was a good size and may be a pregnant female. It cruised the bulkhead by our lawn and seemed to disappear (into a burrow?) under the downed tree just past the eastern end of the bulkhead.

A kingfisher appeared in the afternoon. They haven’t been around as often as in the past, but regular sightings through the winter. I stepped out the back door at 3:30 and scared a black-backed gull at the mouth of the creek. He dropped a bass about 10 inches long that he had found. It appeared to be yet another floater in the season of dead fish.

March Mallard Madness is in full swing with some territorial battling underway. At least two pair seem to be staking out the pond, but the visits of up to 30 each day, encouraged by a neighbor who puts out food daily (corn probably), is making it tough for them. Antics are frequent, taking the form of diving for up to a minute, water fountains caused by intense flapping – sometime a dozen or more at once – and headlong chases just above the water, which often include dives below the surface.

Other highlights today: the single fox sparrow we have seen recently was joined by a second one for the first time, and a lovely female cardinal prowled about the deck this morning.

March 21

First grackles today. Two in the yard – just passing through, it appears.

Predator note:

On return from Florida March 3, I found a huge mass of downy feathers and a few mid-sized ones were spread along the creek bed. It looked like there had been a massive struggle – there were more feathers along the fence line at the pond edge. But no signs of blood and guts and no large feathers. Maybe it was a big duck fight or, if a larger bird or cat attacked and killed one, perhaps gulls or coons took away the bigger bits something more deadly.

The cat is a possibility. A scruffy but well-fed black one, sans collar, has been spotted sneaking along bush lines and next to the house.

March 25

Last night the egret contingent jumped to four, a good sign that we are likely to get to our usual complement of a dozen or more overnight guests. Grackles are up to half a dozen hanging around the pond now, along with at least four red-winged blackbirds.