As spring’s advance stopped and restarted the local and migrating birdies disappeared and reappeared.  Here are some samples of what they were doing.

Ring Billed Gulls doing a soft shoe on the ice:

… and putting on an airshow:

… with their well-fed friend doing the fly-by finale in the evening light:

Robin Red Breast implores photographer to cut back on the snow.  “Enough!” he says…….

While a pair of Starlings chuckle from their high wire act:

and this song sparrow sings its heart out …

and this tree sparrow scrabbles on a rare bit of ground for seeds …

and this Purple Finch or House Finch surveys the scene:

One local person believes that he has seen an Evening Grosbeak (“a great big goldfinch”) and Mary Holland reports that they are up to New England now.  We’ve seen a couple of small flocks of Sandhills flying around and a pair was seen on Belanger’s fields this spring.  So the spring migration is well underway.

Old Man Winter had his last kick at the cat, with some snow and freezing temperatures, showing us some interesting scenes:

First some frosty Ditch Art:

Field of frost flowers:

lil star:

Frosticles:

Growth on a twig:

Waterfall, freezing….

Pane of ice:

More frosticles:

Bubbles frozen in time:

Pussy willow in the snow:

Birdies in the snow —- all fluffed up:

Ice fishing for this Great Blue Heron?

Patrick’s Point:

Mary Holland wrote an interesting post about the effects of variable spring weather on amphibians such as our soon-to-be-heard spring peepers and salamanders.