A Chilly Spring in South Porcupine

It looks like spring and it sounds like spring but as soon as you step outside, you easily forget it's spring. As I'm writing this, it's currently -1°C.  The temperature doesn't seem to want to rise above 5°C this month.  I hope May will bring some warmth.  The birds are slowly arriving even though it's consistently cold and none of the lakes have thawed out yet.  Here are a few of this year's spring arrivals…

As always, the Frederick House Lake waterfront in Connaught is one of the first area to offer some open water to the migrating waterfowl:

Northern Pintail (Canard pilet)
Frederick House Lake, Connaught (24 April 2016)

As for yard birds, we have had some Juncos, American Tree Sparrows, Purple Finch, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pine Siskins, White-throated and Fox Sparrows… But the bears are already wandering around and they have already destroyed one of my feeders... it's time to put the feeders away until next winter.

Fox Sparrow (Bruant fauve)
South Porcupine (April 2016)

Fox Sparrows are probably my favorite sparrows because of their melodic songs… I have been blessed with 3 Fox Sparrows this last week.  And they sing all day long!  I always have a few that stops by in spring but these 3 are staying for the whole week, which is unusual (they usually stay for a couple of days only).  I am obsessed with recording their beautiful melodies on my phone. I have a few of their melodies I wanted to share...I tried to insert a sound link here but I guess blogger doesn't offer that option.

Also visiting my yard this week was this Dark-eyed Junco with a patch of lost pigmentation.

Dark-eyed Junco- Leucistic (Junco ardoisé)
South Porcupine (25 April 2016)

We went out only once to Porcupine Lake.  We walked the trail following the shore, dressed in full winter clothing.  It's been too cold and I wasn't expecting lots.  We saw the usual for April: Mallards, Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers, Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, Killdeers, Bald Eagle, Northern Flicker and Great Blue Heron.

Mallards (Canard colvert)
Porcupine Lake (27 April 2016)

Killdeer (Pluvier kildir)
Porcupine Lake (27 April 2016)

Great Blue Heron (Grand Héron)
Porcupine Lake (27 April 2016)

And last but not least, a sure sign that spring is really coming… my first warbler of the year.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Paruline à croupion jaune)
Near Shallow Lake, Porcupine (24 April 2016)

Next week, I will be heading to Moonbeam for some meetings so I will hopefully have a chance to go birding at some of my favorite spots: the Moonbeam Sewage Lagoons and the rural roads in the Moonbeam area.