Naturally
It's sprinter. Part spring, part winter.
Chickadees, nuthatches, jays and some woodpeckers cache food. The success of this scatter-hoarding depends on the birds' spatial memories to find cached food.
I'll miss being along the Platte River in Nebraska for the sandhill crane migration this year. It's the greatest wildlife spectacle I've ever witnessed. Rowe Audubon Sanctuary in Minden and the Crane Trust in Wood River are marvelous resources. The crane counts by the Crane Trust are found at https://cranetrust.org/ and a crane cam at Rowe can be accessed at
https://explore.org/livecams/national-audubon-society/crane-camera
The light was fading as I noticed from my window how the sun had warmed the dark bark of trees enough to cause the snow to melt in a circle around the trunk of each tree. There was an incident at dusk under a bird feeding station in my yard. A raccoon, likely a kit (cub) from last year, became inquisitive about a skunk. The skunk gave a proper warning. It arched its back, raised its tail high like a flag, turned sideways, hopped and stamped its front feet. The raccoon must have thought it was playtime or the skunk was oddly behaving food. It got too close. I watched from my office window and was about to bang on the glass to scare them off, but I couldn't stop watching. I became a gawker. The skunk sprayed and the raccoon lumbered off. The putrid odor found entry into the friendly confines of my office. There was an opossum nearby, but it wasn't involved in the hostilities. Neither raccoons nor skunks are hibernators, but sleep through the coldest weather.
A small flock of rusty blackbirds showed up in the yard. Johnny Cash should have thrown a bit of brown into his wardrobe because that color combination sure looks good on a rusty. The birds slogged through wet areas at the edge of our woods, searching for food. I don't imagine they're picky when peckish in March.
Q&A
"How can I exclude bats from my house without harming them?" To the Navajos, the bat is an intermediary bridging the supernatural distance between men and gods. The bats most commonly found in homes are the little brown bat and the big brown bat. The big brown weighs less than an ounce and has a wingspan of 13 inches. Big brown bats tolerate colder winter temperatures and are active later in the fall than little browns, which are likely to hibernate in caves where the temperatures stay above freezing. Big brown bats successfully hibernate in caves or buildings. Examine your home for holes that might allow bats entry into your living quarters. Drape bird netting or plastic screen or sheeting over the outside entry points. The netting should extend several inches above, 1 foot to the sides and 2 feet below the opening. Tape or staple the top and sides of the netting to the structure, leaving the bottom open, allowing bats to crawl out. Don't stretch the netting too taut or the bats won't be able to leave. When the bats return from feeding, they'll land on the netting close to the hole but can't enter. Bats won't chew through the netting. Leave the netting in place for a week before caulking any openings larger than a quarter-inch by a half-inch. Avoid doing this from May through August because of the possibility of there being young bats.
"Thank you for identifying the bird for me. How did a Eurasian collared-dove end up in my yard?" The sandy brown bird with a black collar was brought to the Bahamas in the 1970s. Escapees from pet shops there found their way to Florida in 1982. Their goal was to make it to your yard. They were first seen in Minnesota in 1998 and were in Alaska by 2006.
"What is a hoot owl?" I reckon it could be any owl that gives a hoot. The distinctive call of the barred owl is "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?" It's commonly called a hoot owl.
"Why is the bufflehead called the spirit duck?" It came from the bufflehead’s ability to dive to safety as soon as it saw the flash of an old muzzleloader. A. C. Bent wrote in his "Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl" in 1925, “It can often succeed in diving at the flash of a gun and thus escape being shot.”
"Why are beaver teeth orange?" It's not from eating Cheetos. Beaver have long incisors that are orange from an iron-rich protective coating of enamel.
"Where are your favorite birding places?" My yard, local parks, trails and preserves, nature centers and Sax-Zim Bog.
Thanks for stopping by
"To see things in the seed, that is genius." – Lao Tzu
"Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; whenever you’re right, shut up." — Ogden Nash
Do good.

©Al Batt 2021

A rusty blackbird looks like a blackbird that is rusty. Photo by Al Batt