March 5th:

The explosion is about to start! Although the sunshine of the past few days has started the birds singing (and me thinking about Spring and all that entails), the cold temperatures have kept migrants pretty well at bay. However, last Saturday at Port Rowan on Lake Erie I did hear a Killdeer. And yesterday, with the temperature just above freezing and bright sunshine, there were 4 Rough-legged Hawks “kettling” above the fields on Abbey Road just outside York – one of them a dark-phase. (I’ve seen the odd one on Southampton Island – no wonder they start out so early.)

But I just looked at the forecast for the next several days – temperatures as high as 15 expected and above freezing for the next week or so at least. The dam is bursting and we can expect to see a significant influx of the early migrants – Red-winged Blackbirds (the Throwers had some in their backyard yesterday), Killdeer, Robins (migrant ones), Song Sparrows. Spring is upon us.

Rick