As spring unfolds the warm-weather birds start to appear, such as the Tree Swallows and Bank Swallows I mentioned a few days ago. Yet, some winter birds are still around. I’m still seeing Slate-colored Juncos (a.k.a. “Snow Birds”), Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and on today’s walk, I saw four Ring-billed Gulls.

To counterbalance the presence of those winter species, this morning I saw my (*) first-of-the-year White-eyed Vireo. It was encouraging to see the Vireo because it means that the spring migration is ratcheting up.

I’m still waiting to hear the skeeaw and gulp of the Green Herons. Should be any day now (although our colder than average March weather might be holding them back).

Yesterday I posted a picture of a Tree Swallow, along with a picture of an Eastern Bluebird.

The Tree Swallows first appears (to my knowledge) about two years ago. They probably visited the pond before, but they never stayed. It occurs to me, as I write, that their nesting at the pond is related to the erection of the bluebird nesting boxes. The swallows and bluebirds compete for the boxes across the dam, with Brown-headed Nuthatches taking the box across the spillway, and Chickadees in the box further up the path from there.

However, for several years before the Tree Swallows stayed to nest, the only swallows I saw at Seagroves were Bank Swallows. They don’t appear regularly, but they are occasional visitors in the summer months, showing up for a few days at a time, then disappearing again. It’s possibly a migratory pattern.

There have been a pair of Bank Swallows around the pond for the past few days. I’ve found they don’t startle easily, so it is possible to get quite close for a photograph.

While not as brilliantly colored as the Tree Swallows, the Bank Swallows make up for it in almost teddy-bear softness.

One other difference you might notice between the two birds is that the Tree Swallows tend to fly high above the pond, staying fairly close to the eastern (dam) side of the pond. Whereas the Bank Swallows fly much closer to the water and prefer the western (dock) side of the pond.

If you see a blue bird, does that make it a Bluebird? Not necessarily.

If you see a bird that isn’t all blue, can it be a Bluebird? Perhaps.

This first image is a Tree Swallow. It’s probably one of the prettiest blue birds we see around the pond (and it’s almost entirely blue). I am asked from time to time if a Tree Swallow is a Bluebird. I’ll reply that its a pretty color, but it’s not an Eastern Bluebird.

To see an Eastern Bluebird, you have to look for orange.

Admittedly, this is a carefully chosen view of an Eastern Bluebird. The back of the Eastern Bluebird is blue, particularly on the males. Nevertheless, I find it amusing that from some perspectives, the Eastern Bluebird doesn’t appear to be blue at all.

On the west coast of North America, there are Western Bluebirds, but they have more orange than Eastern Bluebirds. However, if you go to the Rocky Mountains, you’ll find Mountain Bluebirds, which are completely blue. And they’re Bluebirds.

There have been at least two Great-blue Herons around the pond over the past few weeks. I’ve seen and heard them confronting(?) each other several times. A few days ago I heard a strange “Awwk” above my head and looked up to see the two of them concluding a brief, in-flight battle.

Or at least I think they were battles. Another time I thought I saw one pursuing another off into the woods to the east of the park. A few minutes later one of them returned alone.

At this time of year, they could be territorial battles for food or nesting, or they could be some kind of pre-courtship “getting to know you” rituals between a male and female.

Because the sexes are very hard to tell apart, I’ll never really know…unless we’re lucky enough to see some “little” Great-blue Herons.

Either way, as they fly around, they make interesting targets for photographs.

Up in the trees we’re watching Red-shouldered Hawks build nests. But much lower down, there’s some subtle nest building occurring on the forest floor. Or perhaps I should say “location scouting.”

Several pairs of ducks have been noticed in the area between the bridges, some quite close to the path. This Mallard hen was just a bit off the paved path, very close to one of the “free-form” dirt paths. She blended into the dead leaves remarkably well.

Perhaps she was a bit too close to the path. As I watched, after taking this shot, a man and his young son came right along the dirt path. The Mallard wasn’t happy about that and waddled off to the water.

I inspected the site and was actually glad she hadn’t started lining the spot with downy feathers.

But somewhere around us, there’s a duck that knows what it’s doing. She’ll have a nest much like this one, perhaps almost in plain sight. But you will probably never know it’s there, until you see the little ones on the pond.