Maybe?

Despite the freezing rain in the forecast for this afternoon, I have hope that perhaps we are actually for-real into spring now. The weekend is supposed to be sunny and warm; time to start visiting the forests to try and find the early-blooming wildflowers.

Spring ephemerals are kind of awesome, when you think about it. It's this entire group of plants that have all evolved to sprout, flower, and produce seed in the tiny window of time between when the snow melts and the tree canopy closes in. Once the light is gone from the understory, a lot of them will die back completely and you'd never even know they were there. Trilliums are probably the most famous around here, but there are so many others.

Green is coming. I can't wait.

Climate Change Sucks

What a weird freaking winter. Spring? Sprinter? What do you call it when it's 15 degrees in the middle of February, then drops 20 degrees in one day at the beginning of March? There are tons of migrants showing up early, the ponds are already free of ice... for now, at least. We'll be below freezing for the next 2-3 days so that may not last.

I'm hoping to go visit one of those ponds after work today, see if I can catch some of the ducks that have been reported there. Unless it's frozen over again, in which case I'll probably try the nearest section of the Speed River instead, since that would be the closest open water.

In the meantime, please join me in admiring this Merlin that I saw on my lunchtime walk earlier this week:

Good Things

I heard my first singing Cardinal of the year this morning. It's not really a harbinger of spring, but it is a sure sign that the days are getting longer.

The sun is also out, and the sky is cloudlessly blue.

That is all. :)

Recap, and Looking Ahead

2016 is over; ding dong the year is dead.

2016 gave me 19 new birds on my life list. Five of those came from Pelee in May, and another six were from my trip to Pennsylvania. I came up-close-and-personal with my first beautiful Canada Warbler during the Credit BioBlitz. And most recently, I finally found my Snow Buntings. Finally.

With a bonus Lapland Longspur hiding amongst the flock - center left, below, with the dark loop coming back off the eye. Somewhat similar to the drab Horned Lark found center right in the photo below, but if you look at the shape of the beak, the lack of dark throat-band, the streaking on the sides...

And now it's a new year. I wonder if I can do an eBird checklist every day for 2017? Or, at least the equivalent of that. A total of 365 for the year. Based on past performance, it's probably not a realistic goal, but it sure sounds nice. I'm 2/2 so far, but today is rainy and blah, I'm not very likely to get outside.

So more realistically, I'll just hope to get some new birds again this year (Wilson's Warbler and Blackpoll Warbler, I'm looking at you), enjoy some of the old ones all over again, and enjoy the fresh air and birdsong wherever I end up.

Yup.

Yesterday was nineteen degrees and sunny - on the 18th of November, I could hardly believe it. Today, it's cold and grey and rainy, and forecasted to snow in the evening. So it seems that our last gasp of fall has officially passed, and now we need to brace ourselves for winter.

But for now, I'm going to remember this glorious, drawn-out fall instead of dwelling on what's to come.

New Territory

Despite the chill in the air this morning, I took myself out to the Hespeler Mill Pond to try and find some of the Greater White-fronted Geese that had been hanging around there lately. Of course I didn't find any. But hey, according to my life list this was my first ever Gadwall, so the trip wasn't a complete loss:

Mostly it was a lot of Mallards, although a sizeable flock of Green-winged Teal came in to land as I was on my way out. A few Northern Shovelers, a few Hooded Mergansers. Two very complacent Mute Swans.

I probably should have brought my scope out and made sure there was nothing hiding in the distance. But after last time, I decided to check out the trail and the vantage points before lugging that thing along. It wasn't an entirely terrible decision, most of the pond was visible enough with just binoculars and/or camera, and there weren't any good places to set up a scope towards the end of the pond that was more interesting (i.e., the marshier end, away from the dam). Still. There were a couple of shorebirds out there, probably yellowlegs but who really knows. And some of those Mallards might really have been Black Ducks or something I suppose. Ah, well. Next time.

The Doldrums Commence

Well, the first frost has frosted, the Juncos have arrived, and the orange on the trees is shading towards brown. Fall is officially on the decline, and winter has to be just around the corner. It's going to be another long, slow countdown to spring. Perhaps longer and slower than usual this year, since I'll be impatiently waiting not just for migrant warblers and green growing things but the dragonfly emergence... kind of feel like I was cheated this year, picking up dragonflies so late. I barely got to survey anywhere at all.

I've been plotting out some places that might be good to go for odes next year. Luther Marsh and the rare property in Cambridge, if their respective owners don't mind. The Guelph Arboretum, as it's nice and close. A couple of the trails along the Speed River that I visited this year for work. Ideally I'd like to set up a regular visiting schedule so as to catch all of the different species that emerge through the year, but I know just how busy my evenings and weekends are during the summer, so that may actually be too ambitious a plan. Also, I'm hesitant to plan to go out wading the river by myself, it's not that I expect to fall in and drown but Murphy's Law implies that that would be the time for it to happen. And to really survey odes, sometimes you just need to get in the water.

Anyway. I have time to figure it out. Clearly I'll have to work a little harder to shift my gears back over to birds for the winter; getting stuck on insects isn't going to do me any good. The winter finch forecast didn't have a lot of northerners coming into Southern Ontario for the cold months, but there's always a few interesting things to see. I just have to get off my butt and go out to find them.