Male mourning dove shows iridescent patch on neck that distinguishes him as a male to birdwatchers and doves of the opposite sex.  Photo taken January 25, 2014 at feeders on front deck of our home in Apple Valley in Howard, Ohio.  (Photo by Don Comis)

While watching a mourning dove chase a female dove around my feeders today, I was struck by a sudden flash of red, reminding me of the red wing badge of a sexually mature red-winged blackbird.  This confirmed my conviction it had to be a male doing the chasing and taught me that the iridescent spot on a male dove's neck may not be as subtle a signal as I thought.

The "spring" sun had hit the spot just right so it flashed at me from a distance, enabling me to know it was there without me being able to see it.  This makes me think that maybe the female sees it that way all the time?

In any case, this goes on my growing list of my favorite signs of spring.  And I'm finally convinced that the spring robins are here, after seeing 12 robins on a lawn in my neighborhood today.

I know woodcocks are doing mating dances and I've seen bluebirds go in out of their houses.  And I've had a pair of house sparrows building a nest for weeks now in one of my bluebird houses.  I've heard the calls of a pair of barred owls announcing they've picked a territory for their nest.  I know great horned owls were incubating eggs in February.

And a great number of butterflies are going to start flying in April and May in Ohio.  For me, the real spring is in mid-April, based on a memory of when I lived in Ohio in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  I just knew it was spring one day when it was warm and the flowers were blooming at the Mount Vernon Developmental Institute where my wife and I worked.

Birds, Blooms, and Butterflies

We have to be patient waiting for spring.  These red-winged blackbirds were only babes in a pond in Gambier, Ohio, on July 6, 2013.  I admit they were probably a second brood since red-winged blackbird males  are here in late February and the females arrive in early March.  (Photo by Don Comis)

I was looking at an article in last spring's Birds & Bloom magazine and got inspired to start my own list of my favorite signs of spring, mostly in order as I've seen them so far this year:


1.  A red-winged blackbird coming to my feeders.  (Feb. 23 two years in a row.)
2.  Northern robins visiting my feeders or coming to other yards.  (Feb.23 this year, Feb. 9 last year)
3.  Male house sparrow checking out my bluebird houses.  (This year: Feb. 24, Feb. 22, and a day or so earlier.)
4.  Skunk cabbage sprouting.  (I haven't looked for this but Jim McCormac's blog notes he always sees this in either the first or second week of February, and saw them well along in his yard when he checked on February 22.)


But heck, why limit signs of springs to birds and blooms?  Why not butterflies.  I haven't looked for or seen any yet but I have an e-mail report from a Virginia-Maryland group of a sighting of a mourning cloak butterfly.  I think this is the earliest butterfly in both those states and in Ohio.


I also got an e-mail from an Ohio bird group that reported seeing a lot of robins flying in a mixed flock of blackbirds and others.  I know on my drive to Westerville, Ohio, today I saw a lot of medium-sized bird flocks in the air, too far for me to identify.  With the snow flurries today and increasing cold, I can see why birds would be on the move and flocking together.

A Punctual Red-Winged Blackbird Returns

The red-winged blackbird I saw at my feeders on Feb. 23, 2014 did not have the bright patches of this blackbird which I photographed in breeding season in Maryland on April 11, 2012.  The amazing thing is that my first sighting of a red-winged blackbird at my feeders last winter was on Feb. 23, 2013!  (Photo by Don Comis)

I also saw my first robin at my feeders on Feb. 23, 2014.  I photographed this robin even earlier last winter, eating berries of one of two crabapple trees along Apple Valley Drive, on February 9, 2013.  I believe these robins are northern robins that spent the winter here and will leave as our real spring robins come back from south of us.  I saw one long ago this winter, at the edge of our yard, near woods.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Talk about punctuality!  I saw my first red-winged blackbird this winter, at my feeders this morning, and last winter a red-winged blackbird made its debut on February 23, 2013, right to the day!


And what a morning after my first zero count yesterday!  Eight species in eight minutes, including a second harbinger of spring, my first robin of the winter.  It seemed fat to me but spent a long time under one of my raised feeders.  It could have been eating dropped seed, but it seemed to be digging for worms and insects.


I know the robin is probably a false harbinger of spring because it's likely one of the robins that migrated here this winter from farther north.  Robins are fairly rare at feeders because they're insect eaters, and northern robins are even rarer at feeders because they're shyer and prone to be in secluded wooded areas away from homes.


Still, my guess is it's still too early for our spring robins to return, so it's probably one of those northern robins with its own bold personality, or just one desperate after all this snow.  We can identify!


All in all a great eight minutes that included a northern flicker.  Birdwatching has many lessons for life, including that no matter how many times you're disappointed, you never know when life is going to give you a box of chocolates.