Very cool. A trip to Red Wing, Minnesota is highly recommended at this time of year. There are lots and lots of them in the trees and riding the airflow above the Mississippi as they search for food.
I live by the Minnesota river valley and have seen a number of them but Red Wing is loaded.
I saw the first turkey vulture of spring in Albuquerque yesterday.
A domestic cat making away with a bird.
SO romantic! 
YES! I always look forward to them, they are the first sign of spring. None here yet, but it’s not really hot enough for them to make it up the mountain.
I saw a male Cardinal at the feeder today, happily he flew off to a tree a block away. He’s welcome to dine here, but he needs to do his karoke elsewhere.
In SE Michigan I saw my first pair of black crows on my rear deck today. They are huge!
The peach and pear trees are starting to bloom and they’re buzzing - literally buzzing - with honeybees. I can hear them from about six feet away.
A bit of ground just revealed itself in our commons area. But with highs in the 50s (F) the rest of the week, we are beginning to expect great things.
Heard the first mockingbird of spring on March 9th too!
… that’s one of the few things I miss about Texas: the insomniac mockingbirds, endlessly repeating every sound they’ve ever heard.
There is a wildlife rehabilitation facility where we’ve taken various animals over the years. Recently my gf spoke with people there about doing releases on our property. Someone came out, looked around, spoke with us, etc and we were accepted as a release site.
They called yesterday about 6 fox squirrels ready for supported release. They will release them next week, while we will maintain a feeder station to give them some initial help.
Looking forward to this. We have grey squirrels, black squirrels (melanistic greys), red squirrels, flying squirrels, and fox squirrels. Soon there will be a bump in the fox squirrel population.
That’s a great story (or maybe I should say preamble). Updates as available, please!
j
Will do! Looking forward to meeting them. We have a few fox squirrels currently and they’re big!
Wow! What does it take to be accepted as a release site?
Sign me up too?
They interviewed my gf (basically a friendly chat) then took a tour of our property. If they’d seen a bunch of outdoor cats that would have been a negative.
They liked our pond, as that would allow waterfowl release. They liked that we had feeders and that they were clean. We’ve strategically planted trees all around and that was a plus. The variety of songbirds impressed them.
They were here “after work” so turkey and deer were in the meadow. The two women took copious notes, asked loads of questions, and were very pleasant. They shared their findings with the board of directors and called us with their decision a few weeks later.
A pair of Osprey sitting on their nest platform. Earliest return by about a week. Spring is here!
@kayaker, that is awesome news. Keep us updated.
When I lived in Albuquerque, I would sometimes see a roadrunner running through the apartment parking lot.
We’ve had a mess of White Crowned Sparrows tanking up on their way to the frozen wastelands of Canada and Alaska where they will nest before migrating south for the winter.