Spring birding

Here are a few thoughts from Jim on what's happening in the bird world right now:

This is the start of "shorebird season" -- look to sloughs and the muddy shores of shallow lakes for things like sandpipers and yellowlegs.

Snipe are winnowing -- that is, making their weird sound as they dive through the air (over and over and over and ...!) in their mating / territorial flights.

Goldfinches, the native sparrows and the birds that catch flying insects -- flycatchers, swallows, peewees, phoebes, kingbirds -- are here now too. We haven't seen many warblers yet, however.

Any waxwings you see these days are likely to be cedar waxwings: the Bohemians have, for the most part, migrated away until Thanksgiving.

And, it's time to put up your hummingbird feeders! Call the Nature Centre at 346-2010 for a recipe for do-it-yourself hummingbird nectar.