It is a glorious morning today. The air is crisp and sky is at lovely shade of blue that we have been enjoying for the past 2 weeks. The sun, peeking out from behind the mountains. I couldn't believe the number of birds that were singing away. It made for a wonderful walk. Have been enjoying the spring-like temps here of late and today the forecast is for 10C with sunshine again. Love it! Saw my first Robin yesterday. I always take that as a definite sign that Spring has finally Sprung!
Oh that sound so wonderful. I love seeing my 1st robin of the year, but I have a bit of a wait. I just looked back and last year I spotted the 1st one March.30 - but that's fine, you've seen one and that makes me smile :) All the feeders are full and there's still "chripin" out there. Doesn't it just sound great.
Have a GREAT sunny Saturday!
Joanne
Will have to be on the look out here in Winnipeg,
someday soon, spring will arrive and so will the robins
In the mean time, these were nice to see. A few Cedar Waxwings at the bottom of the crabapple tree.
Edited - I think I was wrong. The picture is dark, but I think these are Bohemians. Cedars have a yellow belly and whitish rump I think.
This message was edited Mar 8, 2005 7:03 PM
echoes
seen them around here too, eating the mountain ash berries.
we don't get cedar waxwings that I know of, or cardinals, or bluebirds. The only bluejays we get are stellar jays, and whiskey jacks ( I htink they are called CDN bluejays) It's sure nice to see other species of birds that we don't get here.
That's the first thing I noticed when we moved to the Interior of BC a couple years ago, was that there were no Bluejays, just the Stellar jays which are smaller than the Blue. They are really prevalent in Alberta.
You know what I heard here the other day? One of those screachy hawks that eat the song birds... boy I hate them. It is back before the crows!
Despite getting 50 cm snow here three days ago, today was sunny and the Juncos and Purple Finches were singing....perhaps not as strongly as they will in another month or two, but it 's a start. We have a few robins around but they were here all winter (didn't have sense enough to leave I guess).
Now that you mention them, I haven't seen any Junco's for a while. We've had Redpolls and purple finches since before Christmas. There could be Pine Siskins in there too, but I'd need the field glasses to see for sure. Along with the usual cheerful Chickadees, Woodpeckers and Nuthatches(sp?). Could do without the Magpies, although they help with the cleanup job. Once in awhile we see a few Grossbeaks. OK, I'm done with my name dropping.
I've only ever seen Cedar Waxwings here once years ago. They're beautiful birds. I wish they were common here. Last summer we had a blue Bluejay in our yard. It was only in our yard one day but it hung around town for a while causing quite a stir. It's pretty neat when we get visiters like that.
I haven't seen them for a few years. The last few years that we've had Waxwings, they were Bohemians. They are very pretty too. I just have to see a Cardinal. Hope someday I can be in the right place at the right time.
I've seen ONE Cardinal in my whole life. I was on a secluded beach on Kauai ( I can't spell this morning). I heard this beautiful bird singing and had to track it down. Took me a few minutes, but when I found it, it was stunning. He was So red, fire engine red. He also looked just like he was supposed to from the books. His song was such a beautiful song.
That was one of those special moments for sure. I looked up a while ago to see the tree full of the Waxwings. The few I saw before must have been the scouts. Now they're gone and the tree is stripped.
I too, have always wanted to see a Cardinal. But, they are not to be found in the Western Canada, from the reading I have done. Too bad. My favourite song birds that I listen to in the morning when I walk are the Robins, and also the Western Meadowlarks.
Great pic, Brenda! If either you or Todd has a pic of those purple finches, that would be great to see. We have at least one pair of cardinals here. They're very camera-shy, though - or rather, movement-shy. No matter how slowly I creep up to the window (which is still 10 feet from the birdfeeder outside), I always manage to startle them into flying back into the bushes before I can lift the camera up to my eyes. Hmph.
I'm keeping it stocked with those small black sunflower seeds they like though, and sooner or later one's bound to relax a bit. :-)
Shannon
