Spring-ish

Driving south at this rate is like fast-forwarding the rest of winter away. New birds (at least for the year) are already showing up in numbers. Though it’s hard to make reliable identifications from the major highways we’ve been on, the sheer number of options is making me antsy to get out of the car. The red-winged blackbirds are flocking and making that wonderfully mechanical noise I associate with springtime at Eph’s Pond in Williamstown MA, and if they’re ready, I think I am too. Meanwhile, in the grass world, green is definitely the new brown. As we drove through eastern Mississippi, red maples went from bare to budding to leafy. Puffy jackets have been replaced by t-shirts, and I’m looking forward to putting on shorts for the first time later today. Today, we’ll be proceeding through the bayous of southwestern Lousiana en route to the Texas Gulf Coast. We’ve only seen one roadside egret thusfar, but we’ll be on the lookout.
--Don