Hello...Good-bye

Another sign of spring - this morning I spotted a white-throated sparrow in the backyard. They migrate through and will only be around for a couple of weeks. But their appearance signals the soon-to-be departure of the juncoes. Looking back at my phenology records for the past ten years, this is the average time of spring when the white-throated sparrows return. So, all the warm weather we had in March and April doesn't seem to have impacted the travel plans of the birds. Maybe their actions are more strongly affected by the amount of sunlight we have each day than by temperature. Anyway, my records show that it is usually within two weeks of the the sparrows arrival that the juncoes head home - north. We'll see what that date actually is for this year.