Perhaps against my better judgment, I am going to move forward with an early signs of spring column.

Even as nearly a foot of snow fell in my area a few short days ago, signs of spring are out there. They may not abound yet, but they are out there.

It started a little over a week ago with one of the typical first signs of spring: snowdrops poking out of the ground and flashing their little white flowers. A day or two later, a flock of turkeys walked past my window at work. It was a good-sized flock of about 15 to 20 birds, and, of course, I had to leave my work area temporarily to check out the action.

As I stepped out of a door a fair distance away from the turkeys so as to not disturb their day, I noticed that several of the males were displaying. No matter how many times you’ve seen it before, it is always an impressive sight to see turkeys displaying. They are large birds to begin with, so when their feathers are displayed to intimidate or impress, the birds appear to be that much larger.

This post doesn’t have anything to do with birds, but I figured I’d share the dusk sky from the other night. It’s amazing how quickly the scene changes at dusk. A matter of minutes is all it takes to miss shots like this.

Note to the neighborhood birds: Due to weather conditions, this feeder is temporarily closed. Please visit the adjacent feeder with a cover over it. Thank you for your understanding.

Here are a few more shots of the yellow-bellied sapsucker I saw the other day tapping on a tree. Note the aligned holes in the tree shown in some of the photos. Here is the post with the full column.

Came across this beauty during a recent walk in southern New England.

My morning stroll at work one day last week was cut short because the field I usually walk through had completely disappeared. Well, it didn’t disappear, of course, but it was under several feet of water. There was no grass to be seen, only a huge pool of water reflecting the gloomy sky above.

The adjacent river, which is really just a trickling creek most of the time, was now a raging, angry force that had spilled over its banks and flooded the land on either side. Heavy rains the previous night, combined with the few inches of snow that had been on the ground, turned a usually serene setting into a foreboding, aquatic landscape.

What struck me most was how different everything looked. Flooding obviously can drastically change a landscape in a matter of moments, but it can be quite jarring when you are used to seeing something every day and suddenly it looks like a different world.

As promised, here are a few photos of the female purple finch, as seen and photographed in Connecticut during Tuesday’s snowfall. She is eating berries from a silky dogwood, I believe. Females lack the bright colors of the male but are spectacularly designed. They are slightly larger and more decorated than female house finches.

If you missed yesterday’s male purple finch, click here.

Here are a few shots of a purple finch I found on this morning’s walk through the snow. Male purple finches are more rosy in color and overall more colorful (and slightly larger) than the more common house finch. Plus, purple finches are way cooler.

Tomorrow, the female purple finch.

Before it gets too far into the new year, I want to take a look back at my birding highlights from 2023. It was a good year all around with birds small and large. Thanks to you all for being a part of another year of sharing birding adventures.

Here is my annual top 10 list of birding highlights from the past year.

10. The Christmas Bird Count never fails to be a highlight of the year. Whether the birds are plentiful or not, it’s always a good day spent in the field with friends. The weather was cold, gray and damp, and the birds were fairly scarce, but our spirits remained high.

9. Along the same lines, I contributed to eBird more in 2023 than in years past. Checklists from eBird are entered into a massive database that scientists use to track bird populations. Millions of lists are submitted, so my contributions are pretty insignificant, but it all adds up. Anything to help the future of birds. Anyone can participate, regardless of skill level. Sign up through the eBird app or website.

8. I watched a flock of mallards at a park in Baltimore while I was in the city visiting my son at school. It was early in the fall duck migration, but something told me to look carefully at the dozens or hundreds of mallards that dominated the pond. Sure enough, three or four ring-necked ducks swam and rested among the mallards. Not an earth-shattering sighting, but I love my ducks and always love seeing them.