Birds On The Move Day

I hereby declare today Birds On The Move Day.  I just (4:00PM) went out with my dog to get the mail, and was extremely fortunate.

There in the trees at the bottom of my driveway was a small flock – I’d guess about 20 individuals, both male & female – of Red-winged Blackbirds.  Personally, I’ve never seen more than a few of these lovelies at a time.  These birds, so much more than the robin for me, are signs that spring is really here.  Yes, it’s still cold, windy & snowy at my house, but the Red-winged Blackbirds give me hope.

Just 50 our so yards down the road I finally caught sight of two Northern Flickers.  These woodpeckers have been in my neck of the woods with their familiar call – which sounds to me like qwer, qwer –  for well over a week, but today was the first day they let me actually see them.

As planned, I walked only about 1/4 mile and turned around.  When I got back to the bottom of my driveway, there in the trees where the Red-winged Blackbirds had been, was a similar number of American Robins.  These weren’t the first Robins I’ve seen this year, but it was the most in one place.  I turned up the driveway and there in the dogwood brush was another at least 20 Robins.  That’s a lot of Robins in one place!

So I don’t care what anyone else thinks, for me today is Birds On The Move Day!

I’ve used images from the Cornell Ornithology lab & linked to their website.  Go there to learn tons about these and thousands of other birds.