Thursday morning I stepped out of the house in the early morning hours to survey how much snow we’d received during the night. It was eerily quiet. The storm dumped a lot of heavy, wet snow, covering everything under a deep blanket of silence. I couldn’t help but wonder how the birds had fared during our latest winter storm.

Then fast forward two days to Saturday morning. As I stepped out of my house, I was greeted by a beautiful early morning dawn chorus with thirty to forty Cassin’s finches singing joyfully. Hearing all of the birds singing lifted my spirits.

Later that same morning, I led a Jay’s Bird Barn-sponsored bird walk to the south shore of Willow Lake. We started near the east bay, and slowly made our way west on the trail that circumnavigates the lake. We went slowly as we kept stopping to look at birds!

I don’t think we went more than two hundred yards in the first thirty minutes of our walk. We kept seeing new bird species for the day, one right after another. One of our better finds was a Townsend’s solitaire that I was able to get in the scope—a new bird for many of the participants.

We had a small flock of western meadowlarks working their way through the grasses and weeds at the edge of the greatly expanded lake. We took in the sight of several beautiful male western bluebirds. The richness of their bright blue feathers is beyond my ability to put into writing.

We spent time watching a pair of red-tailed hawks at their nest. We watched one of the pair as it flew in, carrying a small branch, to add to the nest. We also watched one of the pair on the nest, as it fed on something—maybe a rabbit? I had my Swarovski spotting scope with me, which greatly enhanced our ability to see the activity at the nest.

Our bird walk resulted in many good finds, nothing that I would consider rare or unusual, but I did see my first Lincoln’s sparrow of the year. Ironically, the very next day I had one in my bird feeding area in the backyard. If you are doing the Birding Challenge, this is one of the species on the checklist, so be on the lookout at your feeders.

As I mentioned recently in a previous column, the number of water fowl species on the lake has dropped off significantly. We didn’t see any cinnamon teal, gadwall, pintails, canvasback, redhead, or ring-necked ducks, and no mergansers or goldeneyes. Migration is under way!

It was hard to believe that only forty-eight hours earlier we woke up to all of the snow. Saturday was a bright, sunny day, and the birds were active and abundant. We even saw new spring arrivals, which frankly, kind of shocked me. On several occasions that morning we observed small flocks of violet-green swallows flying overhead in their endless pursuit of flying insects.

Seeing swallows brought me a renewed sense that all is well and Spring is just around the corner. As Spring approaches, several other species will start showing up in the next few weeks. What you should be on the lookout for? Any day I expect to hear reports of turkey vultures in the area—they are like the harbingers of spring in our area.

Other expected early spring arrivals include white-throated swifts, Lucy’s warblers, and northern rough-winged swallows. All of these species are on the checklist for the 2023 Birding Challenge. This really is a wonderful time to get out in nature to experience the renewal that Spring brings.

Until next week, Happy Birding!

Eric Moore is the owner of Jay’s Bird Barn, Arizona Field Optics, and Hallmark in
Prescott, Arizona. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. If you have
questions about wild birds that you would like discussed in future articles, email
him at eric@jaysbirdbarn.com.

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