I haven’t seen a junco since mid-April. It’s hard to mark the day they leave except to note when some has time gone by since I’d last noticed one. Here, they mark the beginning of winter and the promise of spring. As the juncos leave, the spring birds arrive. I see the most diversity of birds during spring migration. For whatever reason, fall migration doesn’t bring as many stopovers at my feeding stations and water baths as the reverse trip.
Some birds, like the white-capped sparrows and ruby-crowned kinglets, are only around a week or so before they continue northward. Male grosbeaks
He’s been around here enough summers now that he is not bothered by the dogs.
And our resident pair of green herons is back from the southern coast. They, like the phoebe and catbird, are more often heard than seen.
When the calendar says spring and the weather says winter, the birds always speak the truth.