A couple days ago 5+ inches of snow fell in Rockford and beautified our backyard nature preserve. Over the last five years or so we have found 96 species of birds at the C.N.P.
Here’s what it looked like (although the only birds of note were Dark-eyed Juncos and American Goldfinches):
The snow provided a playing field for our puppy Arizona…
Spring time is when the C.N.P. is alive with birds. During migration it is common for us to find eight or more warbler species feeding in our large trees.
With the snow, it is hard to imagine the new life of birds and the native plants we’ve added over the last three years, but the silence is usually broken by a White-breasted Nuthatch or a hungry gang of American Goldfinches and we soon realize there are always birds around!!
Birding in areas like this during the winter is less productive but it’s really nice the way birds stand out so clearly against such a bare background.