Dropped by Snow

The week opened with a major dump of heavy, wet snow and closed with displays of flowers, highlighting the shifting transition from winter to spring.

Week in Review

Without a doubt, the story of the week was the blanket of wet snow that covered the valley at the beginning of the week. The snow itself was interesting, but what made it such an epic event was that the heavy snow coincided with spring migration.

In the face of dense clouds and a blizzard of snowflakes, every migrating bird was forced to the ground, making for the best day of birding I've experienced in the Methow Valley!

At first, I simply noticed a big group of ducks on Big Twin Lakes, but when I walked down to the lake to photograph them, I discovered there were birds everywhere! The hillsides were literally buzzing with bird activity, including many new arrivals that were the first I've seen this year.

This included the first vesper sparrows and lark sparrows of the year, as well as countless mountain bluebirds and dozens of Say's phoebes hunting insects over the lake.

In addition to ducks on the lake, I also spotted what looked like a Bonaparte's gull obscured by a veil of snowflakes.

When I shared my bird sightings on the Nature Notes Facebook group, other people reported that they were also seeing large numbers of juncos, goldfinches, and other birds around the valley. It was definitely one of those incredible moments when it pays to get outside in the face of inclement weather!

The rest of the week left me feeling like this is such a confusing spring. On one hand, emerging flowers and singing birds make it seem like spring is going to explode at any moment, on the other hand, the weather feels like a long and drawn-out continuation of winter.

That said, everything is primed and ready for spring. This week, I watched two male towhees chase each other continuously for nearly an hour as they battled over a territory. It must have been exhausting, but they have to declare and defend a territory, or they won't be able to attract a female. What was fascinating was that there was never any physical contact during this altercation, just a lot of chasing, displaying, and calling that probably went on for hours until one bird gave up.

While I haven't seen any flamboyant flower displays yet, they are well on their way. Yellow bell, bluebells, and spring beautys are already out, and I just spotted my first fern-leaved desert-parsley pushing out of the ground. And, judging from a few small patches that I've seen, it looks like this might be a banner year for bitterroots!

I've also enjoyed checking out how birds have responded when the sun peeked back out later in the week. There were a crazy number of swallows flying around, and the waterfowl migration seems to be picking up steam, with many kinds of ducks on local lakes.