COMMUNITY: Signs of spring popping up

Editor's note: Rick Hollis of rural North Liberty, is past president and newsletter editor for the Iowa City Bird Club.

By Rick Hollis, community contributor

Some days this year, when the snow was falling, it seemed spring was not coming.

But it is if one looks for the right things.

Geese pour north on days with the right weather conditions. Water is opening (and freezing and opening) on our ponds and lakes.

At Pleasant Creek Park near Palo, reports have come in of bufflehead, ring-necked duck, canvasback, redhead, lesser scaup, hooded merganser, common merganser, wood duck, American wigeon, mallard, gadwall, common goldeneye and northern pintail.

At Goose Lake in North Liberty, I saw Canada geese, northern shovelers, canvasbacks, lesser scaup, buffleheads, hooded mergansers and ruddy ducks. Swans were spotted at the Amana Lake.

We have had reports of eastern phoebes and American woodcocks in Iowa, as well as red-winged blackbirds and meadowlarks. Turkey vultures are rocking back and forth in the sky. Canada geese and kestrels are exploring nest sites. Great-horned owls' young now are at least half grown and look like big plush toys, with great big talons.

For me, phoebes and woodcock are the real signs of spring. Looking carefully at the junco flocks in my yard, although the number of birds remains the same, I am seeing some differences.

In the heart of winter, almost all my juncos were males. Now I am seeing more and more females (these have more brown on the back and sides than adult males). And eastern bluebirds are back in my rural neighborhood, as are robins when the ground is not snow-covered.

Just like robins, some bluebirds stick around Iowa all winter, where they can find shelter and berries, but these birds have not been around since fall. Other first of the year birds reported in the area include commongrackle, golden-crowned kinglet, purple martins and barn and tree swallows.

Plants are lagging way behind last year's abnormally warm spring. Besides some domestic flowers, I do not know of any wildflowers yet blooming, but it won't be long.

• If you go online to the Journey North website (www.learner.org/jnorth/) you can track monarch butterflies, robins and ruby-throated hummingbirds as they move north and tulips as they bloom