No Spring Melodies

 Spring in Newfoundland is one of the most depressing seasons. I read reports of the influx of spring migrants to the south of us at the same time as I step outdoors here and tramp through the snow and shiver through the crazy north winds. Is it any wonder the little birds don't venture here for weeks and months to come.

 Typically, the Fox Sparrows arrive before the Black-headed Gulls depart. Well, there are only four Black-headed Gulls left at Quidi Vidi Lake and very few Fox Sparrows are showing up. To date, I have heard no report of any of these few singing.

This morning, I found this little Fox Sparrow pounding the ground at the Blackhead playground, low and out of the wind. I wouldn't sit in the top of the tree and sing either in the biting cold morning wind. At least a few of these birds are showing up. Along the way, I also saw two Pine Grosbeaks chomping away on the few remaining cones near the Maddox Cove turn-off. Those two are the first I have seen in six weeks. For us, it is a long wait for the migrating birds at a time when other North American birders are well into the joys of spring birding.