February 23, 2012 This morning was glorious late-winter at our farm, with numerous signs of impending spring. The temperature was in the low fifties, making only a jacket or sweatshirt (and not both) necessary The hordes of feeder birds have been ravenous of late, although no actual ravens have joined in, just the usual seventeen winter species. I will let you guess what they are… it won’t be hard. An incoming nuthatch (white-breasted) practically skewered me immediately after I finished reloading the suet feeder. Jane and I took our usual daily post-morning-farmchore circuit around the property, a mile-and-a-half hike over the hilltop pasture and through the wooded ravines. Bluebirds were singing everywhere as we began our walk, always a delightful sound. Red-winged blackbirds (males) are now more numerous and singing. A couple honest-to-goodness meadowlarks are hanging around, instead of only that imposter starling that has been mimicking one all winter. I saw two meadowlarks singing in December, but this morning’s two were the first confirmed since then, officially now my first-of-season. A killdeer was screaming in flight over the field. Song sparrows joined in the chorus this morning, both in the edge habitat and in the woods. Woodpeckers were calling and drumming: downy, hairy, red-bellied and pileated. Blue jays and crows provided plenty of raucous company. On non-avian notes, I saw my first-of-season chipmunk skitter across one of the ravines on a dead fallen limb. We smelled fox musk at a couple locations this morning. The groundwater is fully recharged, the springs are gushing and the seeps are springing. "Valhalla Falls," a forty inch cascade over the Upper Mercer Limestone, is almost impressive. Delightful place! As we climbed back uphill toward the house I heard the first-of-season trilling of a junco. Juncos have been very numerous for some time below our feeders, but this is the first I have heard one sing this winter. Looking out in the pasture, we could see the horses sunning themselves and rolling in the mud. Brutus won yesterday's muddiest horse contest. Today it looks like it might be Duchess. A red-shouldered hawk (or two) has been engaging in what I would guess are territorial flights, acrobatically soaring and flapping high above the upland while calling loudly and incessantly. I see and hear this species quite a bit both at home and around my business location in southern California (Orange County), something it shares with house finch and common yellowthroat, coincidental occurrences that I find amusing, or at least worth a smile. No yellowthroats this time of year in these parts, but they will be back in good time. Last night the pair of Canada geese that have been flying around morning and evening for days finally settled into the pond my neighbor built in the drainage across the road four winters ago. I have been wondering if this would happen. One of them, I assume the male, was honking away until well after dark. The development of this pond as a habitat interests me. We have no actual wetland on our property. The pond in question lies about 250 meters from our front door, and it is nestled into the woods. This contrasts with a pair of other farm ponds that have been around since before we moved in 12 years ago. The nearest of those ponds is 370 meters distant from us, but they are in the middle of open agricultural fields, clearly a more sterile setting. There have always been a few blackbirds nesting in the cattails around those ponds, and the blackbirds quickly colonized the edges of the newer pond as well, the first season I believe. But these geese are the first waterfowl I have seen (or heard) attempt nesting at either location. We will see what happens with that. I’m sure winter isn’t done with us yet, but it is nice to shed a few layers of clothing and enjoy the vernal promise. Life is good. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]