Winter in March

Cold, wind, snow - in March - yuck! Margaret Madsen photo

There's something wrong with this picture. March is more wintery than January this year. I remember saying, in balmy January, "If this is winter, we can't complain." In the middle of this stormy day, even the skittery sparrows don't care if I am at the window with my camera. They are cold and hungry and just want to eat.

While John was out filling the feeders, the little Downy Woodpecker arrived for breakfast, landing as usual in the birch tree.  I was watching from the kitchen window,  dishtowel in hand instead of camera, as the woodpecker stretched and bobbed his head left and right, checking out the strange creature invading his usual feeding space. John is accustomed to having the chickadees chatter at him, urging him to hurry and get on with the job, but the woodpecker's whistling whinny was a new voice, giving him heck. The little bird dropped down branch by branch, keeping up his his scolding chatter. The red patch on the back of his head seemed to flare larger as he ordered John away from the feeder. The moment John rehung the feeder and turned away, the bossy little bird  bounced down and was clinging to the wire frame, hammering at the suet.

While it is too cold to actually go outside birding, I am amusing myself at the computer transcribing data from the little notebooks I keep in the car, in the kitchen and with my binoculars to record bird sightings. When I have all the information - species, date, location, habitat, number, comments, etc. - fed into my computer, I should be able to sort the lists several ways. If I want to know what birds I have seen in March in past years, for example, I will sort by that.

Unfortunately, I just picked up a notebook from 1998, the last spring we lived in the Okanagan, and on March 10, there was a pair of killdeer in our small north paddock. Oh dear. I wonder how long until I see the killdeer here at the edge of town?

Trayful of sparrows.  Margaret Madsen photo