In response to Bill's request about what other readers of this list feel are harbingers of spring:  when the male bluebird that has been roosting all winter in it's future nest box starts his fervent song at first light everyday or when the Carolina wren that roosts on your porch lets out its loud and clear song which has otherwise been silent all winter.  Or perhaps the chickadee that is singing the rest of it's song rather than just the first note.  A tough winter in the desolate hills of Morgan county can inspire one to use non migrants and their subtle hints as hopeful hints of warmer weather.  

Glen Crippen
Burr Oak Lake

On Feb 13, 2013, at 4:54 PM, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Turkey vultures and blackbirds can be false signs of spring. Snipes and
> rails can winter in Ohio, too, and there are even records of woodcocks
> doing so.
>       Larry Rosche told me the other day that every winter of his birding
> career about half a million wintering blackbirds have been roosting in
> Barberton; there are some big winter roosts in western Lake Erie
> marshes, too. My folks used to host at least a hundred wintering TVs in
> their Ohio back yard every year. Bluebirds winter widely. No, the true
> first arrivals have to be birds only freakishly seen in the winter,
> regular species you can count on as infallible first arrivals of spring.
> I'd be interested in what species readers think really qualify as
> newsworthy in this way.
>       Good candidates are pectoral sandpipers, chimney swifts, and Louisiana
> waterthrushes. Sure, tree swallows and purple martins can blunder in on
> a wing and a prayer, but pectorals and swifts have come all the way from
> South America, on a very deliberate itinerary and spring arrival time.
> Unlike a vulture loafing up from the next county south, their flocks
> can't risk everything on finding warm weather out of season. And the
> waterthrushes's voice in a chilly damp glen is all the more welcome for
> being the earliest promise kept among songbirds.
> Bill Whan
> Columbus
> 
> 
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