As I returned from an extended visit to the GTA (Toronto area) this weekend, I saw my first robins of the season on a lawn just down the road from Willow House and stopped to snap a picture. It was just as well I did, because the robins here haven’t been so co-operative. Although I have heard them singing, the only sighting I’ve so far enjoyed was of the individual pictured below, who felt no need to have his picture taken, and hurried off while I was still distant.
As soon as I opened the car door, my ears were filled with the calls of red-winged blackbirds. How wonderful! After waiting all winter to hear them, their voices are most welcome. Of course, I knew they had arrived because Birdgirl kindly posted an entry about them while I was gone. There are plenty of them taking advantage of the seed at the birdfeeder. They have been joined by a few grackles.
The blackbirds are most conspicuous in the early part of the day and in the late afternoon. All day, though, Canada Geese can be heard, high above, streaming by in flocks, sometimes half a dozen at a time, sometimes a hundred, heading north. It still seems like a novelty to think of Canada geese as wild birds. In urban areas, they are present all winter in parks, but here, their return marks the beginning of the influx of migratory birds. It’s very exciting to see them passing overhead in large numbers, calling continuously to each other. Down the road, many geese stop to rest in a flooded section of field. Welcome back!
Willow House Chronicles 