Did you enjoy spring? Good, because that's it!

Well, not really but it sure feels like we had spring and now we're back to February! There should be a distinct pause in spring migration over the next day or two and then it should gradually ramp back up. I hope you were able to get out and enjoy our first real taste of spring. Lots of birds have arrived and if you're like me, your Ontario year list has started to bulge in the last couple of weeks.

I made a trip down to Prince Edward County last weekend and it was a trip with signs of spring and signs of lingering winter:

A huge snow drift near Sandbanks PP

There are still lingering Snowy Owls

Red-tailed Hawk carrying food

Goose migration has been in high gear for a couple weeks now

 

This Rainbow Trout almost answered the question "what's on the other side of the road"

Since last weekend temperatures have warmed up and it has been an even more steady stream of new arrivals - check out the Ontario arrival dates for this year and you'll see what I mean.

Brown Creepers and other typical April migrants are really moving

Golden-crowned Kinglets are hard to miss these days

Pied-billed Grebes are now back in many areas

even Ring-billed Gulls look good this time of the year!

It's not just birds declaring spring has arrived - I heard my first frogs (chorus, peepers, and leopard) this past weekend and insects and plants are showing now too.

Hepatica will be blooming soon

My first butterfly of the season!

Firefly out and about

But the great thing about spring, is that we're just starting and arguably the most exciting stuff is still to come! According to the spring arrival dates I calculated using eBird we've got the following to expect in the next week:

15 April -	Surf Scoter
	Barn Swallow
	Chipping Sparrow
	American Goldfinch
16 April -	Broad-winged Hawk
	Brown Thrasher
	Yellow-rumped Warbler
	White-throated Sparrow
17 April -	American White Pelican
	Northern Rough-winged Swallow
18 April -	Virginia Rail
19 April -	Purple Martin
20 April -	Cliff Swallow
21 April -	Yellow-throated Warbler
22 April -	Black Scoter
	Upland Sandpiper

Yellow-throated Warbler...just getting started?

More to come this week?

Every thing on that list made an appearance in Ontario in the last few days with that push of warm southerly air, we'll see if we can get more of them as the week progresses, then it's just a short wait to the big push of late April/early May when almost everything happens all at once!