Winter is almost over. With spring on the horizon, the first "Rainbirds" are migrating to the area for the nesting season. Most of the snow has melted here, and with the frost melting, worms are showing up under the surface on lawns.

Jonathan

I'm afraid the robins will not be here this season... We got dumped on with deep snow, and 25degrees today... doing the Evening chores two Big Swans flew just over my head and the Chicken Coop.

330, The large flocks of migratory Tundra Swans and White-fronted Geese near me left for the far north over a week ago.

Jonathan

Pretty sure it is not a starling, bill is to long. I also think it is some kind of shore/water bird. How big is it?

Im glad Im not seeing any robins or other spring type birdies now.

The Juncos are having such a hard time here ....I have been broadcasting millet all over the side porch of my cabin for them....and they are camped out under my stairs day after day .

The ones who love suet are all over the cages I fill and wait for me ,sometimes inches away, waiting and watching me as I refill them. They fly onto the cages as I pull them up and secure the cages on the tree trunks. They don't even wait for me to finish securing them on the hooks .

I had a Flicker knocking on the cabin siding early this morning as he waited for me. I call him Uzi

About like a black bird. Odd thing is the long thin bill, otherwise has starling coloration .

Because the starling was a Tropical a different molt occurs than the northern migrants

There is another name for them......TARGET BIRD

Jonathan and 330 Trapper,

I've never seen anything like what went on with the robin migration this year. We saw robins bunched together in what looked like the 10s of thousands down here. They totally overwhelmed the woods! Some evenings, they would fly over the house for 30 minutes at a time in huge flocks! I saw several yesterday, but the huge waves went through about 2-3 weeks ago. We always see robins in central Texas, but I talked to the old timers around here at the coffee shops and none of them have ever seen that many robins coming through around here. Seems migration patterns may be changing. Chancey

Everything about that bird screams Starling but the long bill. Many years ago I caught a Starling with a abnormally long bill and even have a picture somewheres with a tape measure beside it. So I know it can happen. Nothing makes my blood boil like a starling, I am glad most folks try to irradicate them.

That's too many Robin's, good for nothing noisy things

The whole flock is like that. I first encountered them a couple winters ago, in 10 below plus conditions when I was frost scraping beaver, and the scrapings landed on the snow outside a window of my fur shed. They would be there every day, and fly at the slightest disturbance. Very wary birds . I had found one dead outside the picture window...same beak. I wouldn't have thought they could fly fast enough to break a neck on the window.