Well, it IS after all, April in Maine. Yesterday’s light, wet snow throughout the day wasn’t exceptional. April weather in Maine is dynamic, and on some days, the conditions will make it feel more like early March. Another day might feel like June.

What was exceptional, however, was the amount of snow that had accumulated by this morning! A couple inches had fallen by dusk yesterday, but by this morning, up 15 inches had fallen in the Greater Portland area. I unofficially measured 16” in our Pownal yard. THAT was unexpected!

Eastern Phoebes – like the one I saw yesterday in the snow at Hedgehog Mountain, Tree Swallows, and other early mostly-insectivorous migrants are not happy, that’s for sure. Sparrows, on the other hand, do just fine – especially when there’s a bird feeder nearby. Feeder watching has been fantastic during the past two days, that’s for sure.

This morning, while trying to motivate to go out to get the driveway cleared, we enjoyed a ton of activity at our feeders at home. Essentially the same cast of characters as Tuesday’s feeder watching, but a few less Dark-eyed Juncos and American Goldfinches today. Boy, those Fox Sparrows really stood out on the bright white background.

The store’s feeders have been quite active as well, but here we only have 1 Dark-eyed Junco, hanging out with about 10 Song Sparrows and a single American Tree Sparrow. 1-2 Carolina Wrens continue as well. Here, however, our feeders are dominated by blackbirds, with estimates in the past two days of about 60 Common Grackles, 20 Brown-headed Cowbirds, along with 8 Red-winged Blackbirds. Odd to see so many blackbirds walking around on top of a foot of snow!

Our hopper feeder, filled with corn for those blackbirds, narrowly escaped the plowing.

Unfortunately, the Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch was snowed out yesterday, and likely again today as well. That means we would have tallied only one bird in the past 4 days. Ouch. (Almost as painful as getting our butts kicked by Tennessee Tuesday night!) But, southwesterly winds are being predicted for tomorrow, so if that holds true – and the skies clear a bit – it could be a very good flight. We’ll just have to wait and see!

Here’s the “view” from Tuesday, and likely the same picture could have been used for yesterday, or even today - but a bit whiter.

But, spring really is on the way, I promise. Here, I’ll prove it. Take a look at the Migration Map from Hummingbirds.net

Speaking of migration, here’s a story about a record-setting migration documented by Bar-tailed Godwits from New Zealand. (Thanks to Mike F. in MI for sending this along).

And finally today, this story from Iowa. We’ve all heard of “anthropomorphizing,” but what about this story on “reintroduced” (I use quotes purposefully here, but this is a subject for another day) Trumpeter Swans. “Ape-opomorphizing” perhaps?