It's April 5th snowing the ground is covered with 10 inches of new snow and here is a Hermit Thrush.I sat in the car taking photos of the birds eating the berries , there was; Starlings, Robins,Grackles ,Crows plus Juncos and Sparrows working the ground along with one lonely Hermit Thrush.
The Robins were everywhere I looked all three Sumac groves along route 103 were covered with birds all Looking for food after the snow storm. It seemed like there was a Robin on the top of each branch, hundreds of birds singing , fighting for the berries and even the crows were eating them.

The sites and sounds of spring!

All photos and text copyright Peter Manship
This winter I wanted to try and find as many unusual wintering birds as I could. Carol and I started in Barnagut NJ looking for Harlequin Ducks (see Jan 2007 newsletter) then Moose bog in Vermont for the Three-toed Woodpecker plus the Boreal birds (scroll down to bottom of the Feb 2007 newsletter) and then to Ft Edward NY grasslands for wintering Hawks and Short-eared Owls. Ft Edward proved to be one of those special places that comes along every now and then. Each time I went over there something wonderful happen, the owls put on quite a show in Jan. /Feb. and people of all ages came to watch. Why the Owls choose Ft Edward I really don't know. Sometime you had to waite until sundown for the Owls to start flying around , other times they were out in the open on Hay bails along the edge of the road .In the beginning there were reports of 7 then 19, 22 and all the way up to 49 Short-eared Owls sighted before they left for all points north. There was the time I went over to Ft Edwards early in the morning to see if the Owls were still out, in the field just before the turn to the owl road there were two Coyotes still out hunting . Even though I was a hundred yards or so from the Coyotes it was a thrill to watch them hunt.