Vernal Equinox

Today is the Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and things are beginning to show signs of spring hereabouts.  Snowdrops have been up for a while.  Some bird species are arriving in greater numbers, and others appear to be preparing to leave.

Two days ago I spied a pair of large raptors riding the air columns over a marsh.  When I saw them they were already pretty high up, and I couldn't discern whether it was a pair of Osprey or a pair of juvenile Bald Eagles.  I decided they must have been eagles, since there have been no other signs of Osprey yet.  Today, at the same marsh, I positively identified an Osprey, so the soaring pair may well have been Osprey.

Redwing Blackbird males and Common Grackles are plentiful. Killdeer have been around for a couple of weeks now.  My wife spotted some Black-Belly Plovers yesterday.  The waterfowl that are still around are paired up for the most part.

The numbers of Mergansers and Ringnecks are dwindling as they push farther north to nest.  Most of the winter denizens have departed, but some of the Horned Larks remain, and where one finds Horned Larks, one may also find a Lapland Longspur.

  
This first-winter female was working the edge of a puddle, thus explaining all the schmutz on her beak.

Today I saw first-of-the-season Great Egrets - two of them, in breeding plumage.  [ Note: I have been corrected - breeding plumage involves more than just the wispy strands, but the green coloration on the beak being much more prominent.]  [Note #2: today, 3/21, there were a total of four Greats about, and I saw a Greater Yellowlegs to boot.]

Things are looking up!

Now all we need is another 20 degrees on the thermometer ...