It is Spring!

"One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring. A cardinal, whistling spring to a thaw but later finding himself mistaken, can retrieve his error by resuming his winter silence. A chipmunk, emerging for a sunbath but finding a blizzard, has only to go back to bed. But a migrating goose, staking two hundred miles of black night on the chance of finding a hole in the lake, has no easy chance for retreat. His arrival carries the conviction of a prophet who has burned his bridges. A March morning is only as drab as he who walks in it without a glance skyward, ear cocked for geese."

― Aldo Leopold

Lake Mendota is opening up and all of Middleton's ponds are finally free of ice ― I checked Esser, Stricker's, Tiedeman's, Graber, the North Fork and Deming Way ponds. So far waterfowl are fairly sparse, but this weekend I found Canvasback, Gadwall, Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, Northern Shoveler, Lesser Scaup, Wood Duck, and Hooded Merganser. Along the Pheasant Branch creek corridor I found my first Golden-crowned Kinglets of spring. 

More Eastern Meadowlarks have moved in and claimed territories at Shoveler's Sink. I half-expected to find an Eastern Phoebe today given the mid-sixties temperatures, but found none. I am sure they'll be here by next weekend. Song Sparrow numbers continue to rise and songs of Northern Cardinals are as cheerful as ever. As I type I am being serenaded by an American Robin singing its evening song before going to roost for the night. 

Though undoubtedly birds are on the move by the millions each night there are favorable winds, it feels a little like a lull or a calm before the storm at the present. This week's weather forecast calls for rain every day until Saturday, but it won't deter spring migration so long as those winds keep coming from the south. Eastern Towhees? Fox Sparrows? Winter Wrens? Tree Swallows? I'll just have to go out looking for them next weekend. No doubt, I'm behind, and Dane County's most reliable birders have already observed them. 

And Lester Doyle has been finding Oblique-lined Tiger Beetles in Columbia County. 

Decisions, decisions ...

All images © 2021 Mike McDowell