My first Killdeer of the spring. These big plovers of ballfields and gravel pits love this season of mud, and this one arrived just as the last snow melted into the dirt. They’re not subtle, and, as usual, I heard mine before I saw it.

The latest Bird News

Northern Shrikes are rare, robin-sized, gray-and-white, black-masked songbirds of the open boreal forests and up as far as the Arctic from northern Quebec to Northern Alaska

From their feathers to fat to feet to food, our birds are designed for surviving cold winters.

Some of our robins may never leave, and others come down from Canada to spend the winter here.

This may be a week to hunker down and watch the feeders.

Not many snowy owls have appeared this year, but the consolation prize is the appearance of short-eared owls.

I recommend you find a good duck pond near you, preferably one with some ice, and see what the eagle situation is.

What we lacked in numbers of the common owls, we made up for with encounters with some of the more sought after species.