March 1st

Here we are, the 1st day of March….

and it neither looks, or at a steady 0c degree’s, feels, very ‘spring-like’.

The next couple of months should bring many changes to the area both in terms of appearance and the bird species seen, but before we get to ‘what to expect’ we’ll deal with today…

mobbing Steller’s Jay’s led me to this Red Tail Hawk.  Red Tail Hawk’s come in a number of different colour variations…this one is classified as a ‘light’ adult.

Although there was a fair bit of activity with all the usual species…the only other sighting of note was of this

male Hairy Woodpecker….I could hear a woodpecker calling and it took some time to actually spot him up in one of the ‘eagle trees’  there has been some discussion of late regarding Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers so now might be a good time to touch on the subject….appearance wise they are virtually identical apart from size, and size is often difficult to judge out in the bush so the key is to really concentrate on the size of the bill…

The ‘Hairy’ Woodpecker at 9.25 inches and as seen in this file photo has the size of bill you’d expect on a Woodpecker,  long and stout…

while the ‘Downy’ Woodpecker at 6.75 inches has a much shorter, more delicate looking bill.  Both species are found here although we seem to see the Hairy more than the Downy.

NOW…what can we expect for the coming month…well first I didn’t do that well with my February predictions…the influx of American Robins scheduled for mid month has yet to materialize and there has been no sign of any of the Finches yet…although I think I heard some singing the last day or so…

March is when activity should really start up.  On this day (March 1st) in the year 2002 we saw the first Tree Swallows of the season….we won’t be seeing any today but expect them to show up some time this month.  I’ve already mentioned that Rufous Hummingbirds should be here by the 3rd week of the month….last year the first one was spotted on the 5th!! but I wouldn’t expect that this year…anywhere from the 14th to the 24th seems to be the more average first arrival date.  Ruby Crowned Kinglets, the only slightly larger and just as active cousins of the Gold Crowned Kinglets that have been with us all winter, can be expected any day now.  Then there are the ‘passing through’ migrants…I mentioned to expect an increase in the Northern Flicker population this month, but other species we could see are Western Meadowlark, Townsend’s Solitaire and Mountain Bluebird…to name just a few.  We are getting into the time of year when you just never know what might show up!