Birds and Seasons 



SECOND SERIES 



FEBRUARY AND MARCH BIRD-LIFE NEAR BOSTON 



By Ralph Hoffmann 



EBRUARY seems to be the longest month of the year; so impa- 

 tient have we become for the first migrant, whose arrival marks 

 for ornithologists the return of spring. Each year, when the 

 February thaw sets in, and the Song Sparrow that has wintered 

 near us in some brush heap begins his somewhat husky song, 

 we remember that there are fortunate people who, even in eastern Mas- 

 sachusetts, have seen Bluebirds in February. Too often, however, the 

 mild weather is followed by heavy snows or bitter winds; it is, therefore, 

 safer to expect no arrivals before the second week of March. Mean- 

 while some one reports a hardy Bluebird here and another there, and at 

 last our own birds return to the warm hillside orchard. Then winter is 

 over. Often the other birds return fully as early as the Bluebirds, and 

 our first intimation of spring comes from a Bronze Grackle, creaking on 

 his native pine tree, a silent Robin, or a distant flock of Red-wings, 

 rising and falling as they fly. In all the ' back country ' Song Sparrows 

 and Flickers act as heralds of spring. To my mind, however, there is 

 something incomplete in the entry of the vernal season unless a male 

 Bluebird in full song is the herald, let whoever will be the pursuivants. 

 No other performs the ceremony so satisfactorily. By the middle of the 

 month the hylas have thawed out, and then come those sunny mornings 

 when the Flicker's shout hardly ceases for a moment; the air is filled 

 with the songs of migrant Bluebirds, passing northward, with the clear 

 whistle of the Meadowlark, and the chorus of Red-wings on the hill- 

 sides. Migrant flocks of Song Sparrows and Snowbirds now appear; all 

 are in high spirits and full of song. Even from the silent Creeper a sharp 

 ear may now catch an occasional wiry, high-pitched song. Unless the 

 season is very backward, we may now look for Rusty Crackles and Fox 

 Sparrows, but the weather influences the arrival of the early birds very 

 decidedly, so that in the dates given below the range between those of 

 early and late seasons is much greater than in May. Sometimes great 

 fields of snow lie to the north, and bitter northwest winds blow for days; 

 again there is unusual warmth and sunshine, and flying insects abound. 

 In such years the hardy Phoebe returns to the old shed or to the bridge, 

 and the vigorous whistle of the Cowbird falls from some restless flock 

 'flying over.' The Robins, Red-wings and Cowbirds, which we see in 

 March, are almost exclusively males. 



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