The madness that is spring bird migration has begun in earnest. It wasn't until about April third that open water presented itself when the ice on Bridge Creek collapsed all along its length during a day or two of warm weather. This allowed the first of the waterfowl to trickle in. Hooded Mergansers were seen first, followed by Goldeneye and Bufflehead.

The 100 Mile Marsh took its sweet time losing its ice. It was crowded with incoming waterfowl in a tiny gap of open water on the South side of the marsh before the ice melted. At one point around April ninth I guess-timated there were 1400 individual waterfowl at the marsh. I did not think I was being too liberal with my guess as another birder put the number at around 1200 birds.

By April 13 most waterfowl species arrived. The exception being the Blue-winged Teal.

Yesterday at the old sewer lagoon I saw the first pair of Wood Ducks. Cinnamon Teal and Gadwall, two species that can dawdle were already there. Ruddy Duck numbers are increasing at the Marsh.

Last Sunday at the old sewer lagoon I saw the Eurasian Wigeon. Not a spring has gone by in the last dozen years without someone recording one or two. I saw three males on the marsh two years ago.

One bird that surprised me by its early arrival at the 100 Mile Marsh is the Virginia Rail. I was skeptical when I heard the 'icket, icket, icket' call coming from the cattails and was unable to make a visual confirmation so I couldn't claim a definite sighting. I was driving home when I discovered that I could do a very good rendition of the 'icket' sound, so I turned around and went back to the marsh. Making sure I was quite alone, I 'icketed'. The sound was repeated from the cattails. This went on for a short time... dueling 'ickets', then suddenly, probably out of sheer aggravation, the Virginia Rail jumped up and flew a short distance. That's all I needed to claim the sighting.

Some Tree, Violet-Green, Bank and Rough-winged Swallows are back. This group of birds has a tough go at this time of year, dependent as they are on flying insects which tend to disappear when nights can still fall to minus ten degrees celsius.

We are now into 'brown spring' as I call it, a period of about a month when the snow is almost gone and the real green is yet to arrive. Barring any great blizzard, birding will become more frenetic next month.

Ohmm=One Hundred Mile Marsh
Ohmm=One Hundred Mile Marsh
Cp= centennial Park

April 01 - Tree Swallow - ohmm
April 03 - Redhead Duck - ohmm
April 04 - Northern Harrier - ohmm
April 05 - Greater Scaup - osl
April 06 - Spotted Towhee - cp
April 07 - Two Pied-Billed Greb - ohmm
April 07 - Flock of Shovellers - ohmm
April 07 - Ruby Crowned Kinglet - ohmm
April 08 - Three Rudy Ducks, one male, two female - ohmm
April 08 - Ten Great Yellow-legs - 102 Mile Pond
April 08 - Belted Kingfisher - osl
April 09 - Eurasian Wigeon - osl
April 09 - Rail (by sound) possibly Virginia - ohmm
April 09 - First Yellow-headed Blackbirds return to town - ohmm
April 10 - Virginia Rail (sight verification) - ohmm
April 12 - Pair of Gadwall - ohmm
April 12 - Eared Grebe - ohmm
April 12 - Pair of Wood Duck - osl
April 12 - Bank Swallow - osl
April 12 - Sharp-skinned Hawk - osl
April 12 - One Yellow-rumped Warbler - osl
April 12 - Several Harriers - osl & ohmm
April 12 - Fifty or sixty White-fronted Geese - Walker Valley (108 Mile Ranch)