24 April 2015. Cayuga ON. April is regularly a month of expectation, encouragement and disappointment. My diary is full of entries attesting to the fact that April can blow hot and cold. Here are a few examples from the last week of April: 1990 “Today was the third day of a sudden heat-wave, temps went to the low 30s.” 1981 ” After a record low night minus 5 deg C.” 2013 “Cold and snow squalls all day.” This week we’re living one of those cold breaks and it has stalled the spring migration in its tracks.
Today I walked the census route at the bird observatory. It was cold, the north wind sliced right through me, and my fingertips were ready to drop off. The census was modestly successful but I was in no mood to linger.
Tree Swallows are always early to return in the spring so there must be something in their make up that enables them to survive late cold spells; or maybe some just starve to death and that’s the way it is.
I admired a group of six Tree Swallows that were clustered together trying to stay alive by fluffing up their feathers and sheltering each other. They made no attempt to fly away at our approach; that would use too much precious energy. They were a doleful sight but photogenic at the same time.