The bird transformation in one week is astounding. The multitude of cormorants are gone -- birds I'd been seeing every day since autumn -- have migrated to the Oregon coast. No cormorants in the water in front of my windows, none on the river pilings. Gulls, too. Instead, swallows are zipping all around and landing. Last year I put up a birdhouse for violet-green swallows and this year built a perch for barn swallows, so I'll see if I get any nesters.
Then today when I went for a paddle I saw that the ospreys are back, building their nest on top of one of the pilings where the cormorants had been hanging out. One was on the piling and its mate on a nearby tree.
Herons and belted kingfishers, which I'd hardly seen around all winter, are starting to be more visible. And we are all waiting for the purple martins -- "scouts" that look for potential nests are anticipated to arrive here from South American in mid-April. Today was the Celebration of Life for Dave Fouts, the Purple Martin Man, and one of my neighbors said wishfully that "my" martins should have come back today in honor of Dave, but they apparently are waiting to arrive at the usual time, although it's been a mild winter, so who knows.
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