There had quite a few fox, song, and golden crowned sparrows hanging around our feeders for the last few weeks. They all seem to have disappeared the last couple of days. Perhaps they continued on a migration north. I think I heard a hermit thrush this morning, it would be the first one this year. There is a bird song that I hear regularly, but I have not been able to figure out what kind of bird makes it. It’s usually 2 or 3 notes on the same tone, then a lower note and back to the first tone. dee dee dee doo dee. Sometimes the first note is quiet or non-existent.
While hiking around Thimbleberry Lake today I saw a pair Northern Flickers.
Went on a family hike to Beaver Lake today. The hummingbirds were quite active on the hillside. There seemed to be at least two hanging around near where the trail reaches the top of the hill. On the way up, we only caught a couple of glimpses, but I had difficulty tracking them with my eyes even though they were very easy to hear. On the way back, I noticed that at least one (and it seemed like a couple of them) were making rounds from perch to perch. I managed to get a couple of decent pictures after this realization. Once we reached the top of the hill, we heard many other birds singing as well. The ruby crowned kinglets seemed especially vocal, and there was a song that I did not recognize.
Plants were noticably further along than last Friday when Jonathan and I hiked the trail. The false hellebore was up more and I noticed horsetails coming up near the start of the hill section. There were still some cranberries from last fall that we found. Connor really liked them, so I let him eat most of the ones I picked. There is still some ice on the smaller back pond. I saw a couple of grayling in the outlet stream somewhat downriver from the lake. They looked like they might be 8-10 inches long, or so.
Yesterday I saw a hummingbird for the first time this year. I put our feeder up in the window on Saturday, and I was sitting by the window when Melissa said she saw one fly up. I looked out and saw it flying away. It did not stop to feed, but it was definitely a hummingbird. Melissa saw one feeding today. I had heard that others had seen hummingbirds last week.