Tuesday 1 April 2014

Blackbirds, Purple birds, red squirrels and black bugs; harbingers of spring

15˚ C. in the sunshine!
Purple Finch pair have been merrily feeding, I hope they have a family! Last day of March was gloriously warm. On the sheltered front deck, it was t-shirt weather despite 6cm of snow last Sunday!
This photo through the window!

Big snowfall,
happily sheltered
Can you figure out what these are?
Floating on the top of a puddle
Snow fleas, more properly springtails. (More close-up photos here!)

Billions of them! Just wish our insect-eating robins would visit. They must be hungry! They are harmless, and eat dead vegetation, bacteria, fungi, algae, pollen, roundworms, rotifers and  sap!

The red squirrels estivate, sleeping in the deep cold but not hibernating. I captured photos of this one atop the Catalpa tree, it was hoping to snatch some seed from under the bird feeder.
Then there are the birds! We've a pair of robins, and an American Sparrow on the chestnut tree. See the leaf buds about to burst!
Red-winged blackbirds are back!
American aparrow
Vultures are back, too!
Good thing. We need the clean-up crews.
Robin boppin'

7 comments:

Judy said...

I heard a robin, and possibly a redwing yesterday. Maybe spring will come after all...

KarenW said...

Any sign of bears down your way yet? I'm up in the Ottawa Valley, south west of Pembroke right on the corner of Algonquin Park. We've been walking the trail/seasonal road back into the bush. No sign so far, but we're wondering?

Jenn Jilks said...

No signs of bears, Karen. But it was April 29th when we saw our backyard bear last year!

Christine said...

first I've seen red finch, I think. I did notice a squirrel in the backyard today.

Red said...

You're doing much better than we are doing with temp and birds. We have crows bluebirds and robins. We haven't been above 0 for two weeks.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
This looks mush (eerrr much) more promising!! Heheh. There's a lovely of anticipation which I guess is what spring is all about. YAM xx

SquirrelQueen said...

You have so many lovely birds in your area and a rather cute little squirrel. I hope spring comes to your area soon.