Sun, Snow, Showers and spring….

One crazy mixed up day but at least we are seeing some sunshine!

Looking up the valley towards Harrison…sunshine

Looking across to Mt. Woodside ….snow

and a few minutes later….showers…

Now for the spring part….

This pair of Canada Geese…another pair flew past while we were walking…

but look carefully into these Hardhack bushes and what do you see?

a Bushtit nest…and there is one of the Bushtits

Hard to see but here is the female with a mouthful of nesting material (moss) Females have light colored eyes while the males have a dark eye.

a last look….I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the progress here but am not going to share the exact location as the birds do not need any human interference.

The bushtit nest building wasn’t the only sign of seasonal progression today…

Back around the end of February I mentioned that March usually brought an influx of Northern Flickers and that we often saw Yellow Shafted and hybrids between the Red and Yellow Shafted at that time…well I guess the cooler than normal weather has held the Flicker migration up…they have been around during the month of March but today is when the numbers really soared….saw 12 or 14  today, they seemed to be everywhere,  Yellow Shafted and hybrids amongst them…

I should mention that Northern Flickers feeding on the ground is normal….they are very good at getting grubs, worms and ants.

Here is one of the ‘hybrids’ as it had the red moustache of the Red Shafted but also has this red ‘V’ on the nape like the Yellow Shafted.

this one showed golden coloration as it flew into this poplar tree…if they stay around for a few days and the weather is favorable I’ll try to get some better pictures but they are quite spooky and don’t allow for a very close approach.