Sunday, March 25, 2012

Record Early Phoebe

What a whirlwind spring we have enjoyed thus far. Temperatures in the 80s have finally given way to more seasonable conditions. But before the changeover, I noticed something that seemed hard to believe.

Last week, a bird briefly fluttered over my back door. This is a place where phoebes typically build their mud nests…and a place where I always attempt to thwart them.

But phoebes are flycatchers and as such, do not normally arrive in our climes until at least mid- to late-April. So to see a phoebe in March was astounding.

I doubted myself, too, and wondered if I weren’t mistaken. But today, Sunday, March 25, all doubts were erased. There, on a grape arbor, was a phoebe.

The coming cold weather won’t be good for the bird, of that I’m sure. But I know that lots of other birds have arrived unusually early and also, many plants have erupted prematurely. But this has happened in the past and it will, no doubt, happen again. Nature is a pre-set machine and it makes provisions for such anomalies.

At any rate, it sure is good to see all the spring birds and early plants.

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