Blog

Windy afternoons and new birds. It must be the beginning of spring around here. Astronomers may say spring begins in late March but we Jocassee lovers know now is the time. I saw a few small white birds from the dock yesterday, a bit too far out to make a certain id. They looked too small to be Ring-billed gulls, always a winter resident here, so my reasonably educated guess is our first Bonapartes’ gulls! A little early, perhaps, but not by much as they are the harbinger of spring waterbird migration every year. Our smallest gull, flying with such grace and agility, it is always a thrill to see them return. We can expect our first migratory loons overhead in just a few weeks. Let the zughanrue begin! Loons are busy putting on their finest feathers for breeding season. Running across the water to build strength enough to make the long one thousand mile plus flight to their breeding waters, they attempt short practice flights, just to see if they can do it. March and April. There is no place finer than Jocassee in spring. ~B