Spring! And the birds are coming back!

It's been a cold, late spring here in Saskatchewan but the birds don't know that as they leave their winter spots in South America, Central America, Mexico or the United States.  Their internal calendars say it is time to fly north, so fly north they do.

The first migrant we are likely to see each year is the Horned Lark.  They arrive as early as January or February. The flocks have mostly moved on so now we are seeing more individuals or pairs.

Next are the Dark-eyed Juncos.  Our yard is alive with their trill.  They flash their white-edged tails in the caragana trees and occasionally come checking out the dropped seeds under our feeders.

Meadowlarks usually show up in late March or early April.  While we lament the decreasing numbers of Western Meadowlarks in some parts of the province, we still have lots in the farming country where we live.  One of my favourite spring sounds is their song, loud enough to hear from a moving vehicle when we pass one on a signpost by the road.

Flocks of American Tree Sparrows joined the juncos in our shelterbelts at the beginning of April this year.  We don't usually see them in such large numbers so I'm assuming they stopped by because of the snow we had that weekend.

The other early migrants are less noticeable here on the farm but very visible elsewhere. Gulls everywhere, mostly the white-headed ones right now.  They seem to like standing around on ice beside the bits of open water.

And overhead, on fields, or in any open water they can find are the huge flocks of geese: Canadas, Cackling, Snow and, in smaller numbers usually mixed in the with the others, Greater White-fronted. 

Also returning are the ducks.  Not in the big flocks like the geese, but in any amount it seems from individuals of one species to groups of 50, 60 or more.  Lots of Mallards, but also some of almost (but not quite) every other species you can name.

Northern Harriers have returned, one day we saw half a dozen along the 4 miles of highway we take to town.  Also present are more Red-tailed Hawks than we will ever see the summer.

Just trickling in are the shorebirds.  The occasional Killdeer showed up a few weeks ago, but little else.  Yesterday we saw (glimpsed?) our first-of-year American Avocets

 and our first Long-billed Curlew.

 There will be more.

Also expected this week are the blackbirds, another family of birds that has had a few scouts going ahead but no big flocks yet.

And then will be the native sparrows, the first of whom usually show up the end of April.  What fun we shall have.  So far birding in Saskatchewan has not been forbidden!

Winter Birding on our Farm

Our farm does not typically attract many species of birds in the winter.

We have House Sparrows,

 Rock Pigeons

  and Black-billed Magpies year round.

This year was no exception.  

Sometimes we get Blue Jays. I saw between 1 and 7 Jays every day this winter.  They are still here.  I counted 5 on April 16.  I have no idea how many actually spend the whole winter in our yard.  Some could just be dropping by for the occasional sunflower seed.  We have a lot of tree rows around the yard so there are many places for them to be.  I typically only notice the ones I can see from the house windows.

Black-capped Chickadees do not normally visit our yard.  This year we had one single chickadee most of the winter. I first saw it on November 4, then it disappeared sometime between February 24 and March 11 when we were away from home.

Other years we've had Red-breasted Nuthatches,

American Goldfinches

or Common Redpolls.

These last three birds were photographed in February 2017.

 but this year it was just the Chickadee and the Blue Jays.

Oh right.  And the House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons and Black-billed Magpies.  Fortunately only the sparrows come near the house.