Return of the Red-winged Blackbirds

 

With only remnants left of snow,

And cold and frost now letting go,

There comes my truest sign of spring

With scarlet epauletted wing.

His flash of red is nature's beacon

To say that winter's grip will weaken.

And when the air fills with his song

Of cheering notes so rich and strong,

I know that spring will not be long.

2019

(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

Bathing Beauties

Probably due to weather conditions and strong southerly winds, many of the migrating warblers moved into the Montreal area in May and stayed longer than usual.  Large numbers stopped over in the Botanical Gardens to rest, bathe and feed.

Luckily for me, I found a secluded area with a small stream which attracted quite a variety of bathers.  

Here is a selection of some of the residents and visitors (warblers) who frequented the stream and gave me the opportunity to witness their enjoyment of a cool bath!

Cardinal (female)

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

American Goldfinch

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Magnolia Warbler (immature or female)

Chestnut-sided Warbler

American Redstart

Baltimore Oriole

Tennessee Warbler

The gulls are back!!

On my way home from breakfast at a local restaurant this morning I was greeted to the sounds of Ring-billed Gulls.  I saw them hovering near the road and did the proverbial double take!  I thought to myself "I guess spring actually is coming!"

This played out as I was rushing to get some groceries and head back home as another winter storm was about to hit us with around 20 cm of snow!  Yup - there is a blizzard out there as I write this.

I remembered writing a similar blog posting on gulls and was curious to see the date.  It was March 9th, 2011 and you can read it here.  It is eerily similar in that a snowstorm was about to hit then too.  

Gulls don't seem to have their schedule quite as finely tuned as Swallows (at least those in Capistrano if we believe the stories) but they are just as amazing to me.  Just like the return of Canada Geese and Red-winged Blackbirds, they are a welcome sight and sound!

Back to blogging

Well, it has been awhile...  Finally I think the amazing summer (er, spring) weather and the return of the geese has inspired me to post some photos.  About a week ago I went to Mount Royal on a very foggy morning.  Just as I reached the Mount Royal cemetery summit, the fog lifted, the sky turned blue and hundreds upon hundreds of geese appeared overhead.

At first they were Canadas and I was enthralled but then while I watched, the sky became full of undulating necklaces of white Snow Geese.  They made some of the most magnificent patterns.  Not just Vs but long fishbone-like designs in the sky. 

And sometimes the flocks were mixtures of Snows and Canadas (as shown in the last photo below).

Interestingly, the dark Canada Geese were picked up by my camera's auto-focus feature quite well but the white Snow Geese threw it off and I had to try to focus manually (always a disaster for me), but I thought I would post these photos anyway.

How I love to see and hear the geese in the spring!

Oh my! The gulls are back!

This morning when I walked to work there were no gulls about. This afternoon they were circling and swooping and making me feel that spring is right around the corner (in spite of yet another winter storm warning for tomorrow!).

Yay gulls!