I’ve been away for a few days (volleyball provincial championships in Ottawa) so this might not be the first day of noticeable migration around here but for me it is the first. I was at Ruthven this morning to fill the feeders. After all the rain we’ve had of late (over 4 cm in the past 6 days), the river has opened up in front of the Mansion – this must have happened sometime between the afternoon of the 8th and the morning of the 9th. There was a lull in the rain this morning and a number of birds were taking advantage of it to move – all to the northeast: Common Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, a few American Robins and a Killdeer. So get ready. All that feathered biomass is on its way!

Rick