Pale March

"Pale March sunlight spreads across a world bleached free of color".

Thus begins the narrative on the page for Red-winged Blackbirds in the 'Book of North American Birds' from Reader's Digest.  I bought this book awhile back at a library used book sale, and while it is not as factual as a lot of other bird guides (rather more poet, as you can tell from the above quote), it is worth the price I paid, for the charming prose. 

Red-winged blackbirds have always been a wonderful sign of spring to me, even more so than the beloved-by-many Robins!  I have fond memories of them returning to our farm in the spring. How wonderful it was to have them back-- and singing like crazy, near the creek as I walked to the school bus stop.  I still love them and as luck would have it, I now live near a beaver swamp that draws them in by the dozens.  

I mentioned our vanguard red-wing in a recent post.  He arrived on March 4th.

During the winter of 2012-13, we had one male red-winged blackbird that stayed all winter.  Possibly he enjoyed the cracked corn at our feeding table so much he didn't want to leave, or there was something wrong with his internal migration sense.  Everyone else went to Panama or Costa Rica or somewhere nice and warm for the winter but he did not.  Other years, our red-wing blackbirds have arrived back here as early as February 28 or as late as March 9th.

Now, they are back once again, and they are hungry!!!

Their friends, the Common Grackles have also arrived back in mass.  

To add to the quote about March being bleached of color, I have to say it's also dirty!  Dirty snow and dirty cars.  So, let's find some color where we can.

The grackles actually have very beautiful blue heads when the sunlight hits them.  And if you look at them closely in their group photo above, you'll see how they are quite iridescent with blues and purples.  

The red-winged blackbirds in the photos above aren't showing much of their name-sake red.  So I decided to try to get a photograph of one showing it for you.  But first, this grackle was being photogenic. 

Then, this happened...

Sometimes you just can't plan these things!  It was a red-winged blackbird coming in for a landing.

"Thanks for the strange and wonderful display of your red epaulets, sir!"

For the most part, the birds arriving back from the migration are eager to eat, and they will share the food table with the birds that have been around all winter, like this blue jay and mourning dove.

Occasionally a scrabble will break out and one of the blackbirds will display its' red wings and fan out it's tail to show the others who is boss!

 Meanwhile, I'm helping the corn farmers and local feed store -- we're going thru lots of cracked corn and mixed bird seed!  They eat like crazy then spend some time sitting in the trees nearby.

There's not much use in searching the swamp for potential nesting spots, as the females have not arrived back yet.  They won't be back for a few more weeks... smart ladies!   You can see what the females look like in the top photo.  They are very different looking than the males.  The first year males are a little different looking themsevles -- they have color at the ends of their feather compared to the older males with their all black feathers.  

Older male on the left, first-year male on the right.

Once the ladies arrive back, then the competition will heat up (along with the weather, I hope!) Other birds are already starting their contests, but that's a story for another day.