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Spring Migration is On Despite Persistence of Winter

It was a wintry April day, with snow falling this morning and sometimes mixing with rain or graupel towards midday. Clouds lifted a bit later this afternoon, and the sun even peaked through briefly. This seemed to mark a shift to an even more showery regime which persisted into this evening.

With temperatures in the mid-30s and windy conditions, it was not super inviting to head outside, but I did make it out for a drive later in the afternoon.


I saw my first Savannah Sparrow (bird species #83 for the year) over near the ramp (first report in town was a couple of days ago).

It was a little hard to tell, but it appeared herring may have been spawning again today around the park. If not, then there was still some discoloration of the water from the past couple of days.

It’s been a cool spring. There were some warm (for the season) days in January, but I didn’t think any reached 50F. I got curious and did a little digging. There were four days in January that hit 48F, one day in February got to 45F, and one day in March to 47F. With the forecast for the next 6 days at least showing cooler temperatures, it doesn’t look like we will hit 50F until late in the week, if then. We’re already at the fifth latest date (at the airport) for the first 50F day of the year. If the forecast holds, we’ll see a new record set.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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