The Carolina wrens are around all winter.

Thanks for sharing!

The Bald Eagles are back, too, all along the Mississippi here.

the are now nesting all up and down the fox river, 40 miles from chicago.
i grew up out there, and never even heard of them on the fox.
yeah for that damned evil federal government,

with humans, really. A friend here has a pair that actually nests in their yard, under a bush in the front yard. I'm envious. We also have turkeys, bunnies, groundhogs, and raccoons that we see from time to time, and I saw a pileated woodpecker in our maple tree a couple of days ago. Nature is good.

Yep, it's spring.

We still have buzzards though.

They didn't say where they live, so I just assumed it was somewhere in the south or southwest. But apparently even Minnesota is seeing signs of spring. No fair! ...Do you have bare ground or even green grass yet?

Where I am, there is not one single bare spot, with the snowpack still around 2 feet. Even my driveway is covered, since the plowguy hasn't arrived yet to clean up last night's storm. The skiing and snowmobile industries are as busy as ever, and Mr PotatoChip still has his ice shack on the lake.

That is cool about the duck family, though.

The lawns are still a disaster, and the ground is still spongy, so you can't do much in the yard yet. It could still snow again, but not for the next week at least.

They don't mind a few cold nights.

It's not safe to plant anything outside until sometime in April, or even May. We could still get some hard freezes. The joy of living in the frozen north, I guess.

Today, my lawn is like a sponge, so I'm not walking on it, even to pick up the debris on it from the winter months.

That's the question.

But so was spring....

A couple of years ago, we didn't ever really have that season at all. Things went from Winter to Summer, it seemed. It's early this year here, that's for sure.

They started coming (after spotting a honeysuckle) 10 years ago this year and have been coming back ever since, showing their juvies where the feeders are before they migrate in fall. To think how far they travel for their migration, and then remember where to return... is truly amazing.

Out front of casa de calimary, our birdies are thriving. I notice the little "tuxedo birds" in particular. They have little white chests, dark gray backs and wings and twitching tails, and black hoods. I called 'em "tuxedo birds" for lack of a better name, but have since discovered they're called "Black Phoebes." LOVE 'em. There are several species of Southern California-acclimated birds here - including mourning doves, blue jays, little grey guys with red heads, and more. But the Black Phoebes are the ones that built this little nest up against the wall of our house near the front door, tucked in under the eaves back in a well-protected corner. SMART birds! I thought at first that swallows had built it because it was basically a mud-nest with sticks, and the mud was like cement that adhered the whole thing to the wall. This is (hopefully) the third year in a row that the nest has been occupied! For the past two years we've had bird activity up in there, and eggs hatching, and hatchlings sticking their little heads and wide-open mouths up above the nest so high that we could see them from below.

I see the little Black Phoebes flitting around (as they usually do anyway, with the gaggle of other birds), and a couple of times by now, I've seen them doing so - closer to the nest. Makes me wonder if these are the grandchildren - born last year to the children of the original nest-makers the year before, and now coming back to set up their own housekeeping with their own new brood this year? Sure hope so!

I scatter seeds out front, behind some bushes where they can feed without being disturbed by passersby or even us entering or exiting the house. LOVE watching them! Even got my best friend interested, and now she does it too, every day. And where she lives, in the Midwest, SHE gets bright red cardinals!!! (Jealous, jealous!)

If jays are coming to your yard, you can teach them to fly to your hand for a peanut in the shell (unsalted) in just a couple of days. Go sit outside and put a few peanuts on a table near you, but put your hands in your lap. The jays will come and see them, and will fly down to the table, even on the first day. Just sit still and watch them. Next day , put your hand near the peanuts and sit still. Before too long the bravest jay will fly down, grab one, and fly off. Soon, the others will do the same. The third day, put one peanut on the palm of your hand, and don't have any others available. You might have to sit still for 10 minutes, but one of the jays will absolutely come down and take it. In a couple of more days, you'll be able to stand, holding a peanut out on your hand and the jays will land on your hand to take it. If you don't have jays around a lot now, start by putting some peanuts in the shell on the ground to attract them.

Here's a really funny jay behavior that demonstrates how clever they are: If there are several peanuts in the shell available, a jay will pick them up, one at a time, and weigh them. Usually, it will pick up two or three and put them down. Then, it will pick the heaviest one and fly off with it.

In California, this is guaranteed to work. I've done it many times, and can usually get them on my hand the second day. Once they get used to flying to your hand for a peanut, you can let visitors hold out a peanut and they'll fly to them, too. It amazes people, but jays are bold, smart birds, and learn this trick really easily. Food is a powerful thing.

When we first moved here (and I was still quite young) one of the neighbor ladies was fond of feeding the blue jays. We had lots of 'em in the neighborhood even back then. But she had one favorite. She called him Joe Jay. He became quite famous in our neighborhood. He was bold enough to fly down and take peanuts not only from your outstretched hand, but also, if you held one between your lips! He'd literally fly up and grab the exposed end of the peanut from your mouth - and fly off with it. All you had to do was stay completely still.

We used to put peanuts on the top of our heads and stand out there in the middle of the yard. And sure enough, there he'd come, swooping down and snatching the peanut off our heads and flying off. I'm sure there are peanut shells scattered everywhere in the neighborhood to this very day.

I love those blue jays. We have squirrels here who are fairly bold. If you sit still long enough, they'll come close and take a sunflower seed or some such.

I have found that all it takes is sitting still. Sit still for awhile. If you're by a pond, sit there at the edge of it - and be completely still. I did that one summer and the bright orange dragonflies got used to me. They're the color of Mexican fire opals. Drop-dead GORGEOUS!!! And there were several times where one would fly up very close - within about eight inches from my nose - and just hover there and look at me. This one dragonfly looked me straight in the face for several seconds. And then circled back down to the pond to go on with what he had been doing.

My dad did that one day with a hummingbird. He had a bright red sweatshirt on. He was a little bit on the portly side, so he had a VERY BIG bright red sweatshirt on. Covering his rather large round stomach. So he made a very un-missable target! One day, he was standing at the wide-open back door, just gazing out, not moving, and watching the yard, and here comes a hummingbird. The hummingbird hovered about a foot away from his big red-sweatshirted stomach. Looked like it was trying to figure out if this was a big red flower, and if so, where was the opening at the heart of the flower where the nectar could be found? The hummingbird hovered there for several moments, just looking. You could just tell! And then it whizzed away. My dad just stayed there, frozen, until the hummingbird disappeared. And then he laughed loud and long - clearly delighted about what he'd just been part of! It was one of those really great moments!

and hold a finger up by one of the openings. Sure enough, hummingbirds would perch on my finger and eat away.

front porch nest again.

Right after I moved into my current home in May, 2009, a couple of swallows built a nest in the overhang right outside my front door. Every year since then, swallows show up and raise a new family. I have no way of telling if the same pair has ever shown up twice, but I will say that the pair I got last year were absolutely the stupidest birds I've ever seen. The way my house is laid out, the kitchen window looks out onto that front porch, and if the parents say me moving around in the kitchen, they'd flee the next. It's pretty surprising that they successfully raised their little family.

The nest is so high, so very close to the exterior roof, that it's completely impossible to look into it.

Last year there were three babies, and for at least a couple of weeks after they left the nest completely, I'd see three swallows swooping together, and I'm quite certain it was them, and they stayed together for a while longer. I also suspect that every year it's either the parents or one of the babies from the year before who find the nest again, as I sort of doubt a bird who didn't already know it was there would come across it.

The geese strut around, right by the parkway entrance. If I walk on the parkland of the Yale Golf Course they are everywhere. Once golf starts up there are constant complaints of goose droppings galore. I really wonder what the golfers are thinking sometimes...

The ides of March. I was out planting pole beans just now.

Thanks for the post ... and sharing this hope.

86 yesterday, maybe a degree or two warmer today. We had just enough rain this winter to turn the grass green and its growing fast in this warm weather so the critters will have something to munch on for a month or two.

Admittedly, I think temps are supposed to drop again thereafter, but we'll be grilling tonight and tomorrow, and we've got the windows open, and I've been working more on spring cleaning.

which is shorts and t-shirt weather in Texas!! It's overcast but pleasant. I'm hoping we won't have any more freezes.
My daffodils have been blooming and the bluebonnets are growing!!!

time of year. Wonderful.