Spring

It’s spring nice and early here near Sprucedale. All the migrants seem to have arrived back at once, and I hope the weather is kind to them for the next few weeks. On Friday March 27 I was out walking Rocco about 7 a.m. and as we reached the end of the driveway in the gloom and fog, I heard the unmistakeable reedy trills of a flock of blackbirds across the road in the swamp. From the shoulder of the road I tried to see them perched in the alders, but no luck. Then the next morning on the way back to the house, a bunch of Canada geese in pairs and trios were trying to get organized for the day, honking and flying back and forth overhead. I later saw a heron and a duck in flight, and best of all, on our evening walk we saw a flock of robins hanging out where the blackbirds had been the day before, all on the alert and making warning chirps as they zoomed from tree to tree. Everybody back before April. Wow.