Far

Horned Lark, taken up in Stone Arabia yesterday

From spring, or at least far from real spring. However, one day last week the male American Goldfinches were singing up a cluttery storm. The Carolina Wren started a few days later. He has to be the loudest bird in NY.

 This morning three Tufted Titmousies were calling spring songs. A Northern Cardinal was singing, as were the goldfinches. A White-throated Sparrow spoke of Canada or Sam Peabody depending on your interpretation. Sounded like spring for sure.

We saw a Song Sparrow the other day too. The starlings are making calls like Red-winged Blackbirds. Can the real deal be far behind? I think I saw some at dusk up in Sprakers the other night, but we were going too fast and it was too dark to be sure.

To me, the RWBLs are true harbingers of spring. Everyone tags robins for this job, but they hang around all winter. Most years we see our first American Robins within a week of the New Year. We must have seen a hundred yesterday in our marathon Valentine's Drive Around.......

We saw genuine winter birds, too. Horned Larks and Snow Buntings were plentiful everywhere we drove. The latter are wildly beautiful when they undulate over a field in bright, thin sunshine.

Also spotted two Northern Rough-legged Hawks flying together up on Fiery Hill. They are also northern birds, here for the hunting during the cold times. These two were stunning, with one almost pure white except for the diagnostic markings they sport. They were quite obliging and flew around us for a few minutes before sailing away.

It's certainly not spring yet, but it is kind of fun birding the cusp