Spring Migration Continues...

The last few days of warm weather and southerly winds brought us plenty of new arrivals.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Male Eastern Towhee

Female Eastern Towhee

Brown Creeper

Brown Thrasher

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Feeding Time

Bald Eagle feeding two little ones in the nest.

American Kestrel

She's new in the neighborhood.  I've seen her nearly every day this week and she finally let me take some photos.

Eastern Bluebirds

A pair of Bluebirds checking out a potential nesting site.

Caspian Terns

The Caspian Terns have returned to Lake Erie.  These are the first arrivals I've seen this Spring.

American Crow

"A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense his life... The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds." ~ John Burroughs (excerpt from Birds and Poets, 1887)

Pectoral Sandpipers

Pectoral Sandpipers are migrating through Western New York now.  These amazing travelers spend the winter in South America and breed on the Arctic tundra in summer.

Downy Woodpecker

A female Downy Woodpecker perched in a red pine tree.

Song Sparrow

Tonight's Sunset

Great Blue Heron

Snow Goose

A Snow Goose migrating on through this afternoon with a group of Canada Geese.

Purple Finch

Tundra Swans

Counted a total of 163 migrating Tundra Swans on a pond in a local vineyard today.

Hello Spring!

American Wigeon

Rusty Blackbirds

Rusty Blackbirds migrating through our area on the way to their boreal breeding grounds.  Their numbers have fallen at least 85% in the past four decades and I feel very lucky to see them moving through.

American Robins

Ducks and a Fisher Cat

While watching some Mallards and a Wood Duck, I saw a Fisher Cat pop out from under the ice for a few moments.  The Fisher dove back under the water and the ducks took off before the Fisher could swim underneath and catch one of them.

Wilson's Snipe

Timberdoodle Tracks

Tracks from an American Woodcock in the woods on the side of our house.  The round dots are from where they poke their long beaks into the ground looking for worms and grubs.

Vernal Equinox -- Ostara

Searching for Spring...

Last Day of Winter!

White-tailed Deer rummaging for food in a dried up corn field.

Female Ruddy Duck

Horned Grebe

Horned Grebe transitioning to breeding plumage.

Downy Woodpecker

I'm pretty sure she's trying to tell me that the suet is getting low and it's almost time to refill the feeder.