We had roughly 10 inches of snow by this morning, less than an inch additional before it stopped around noon. Feeders were caked with snow, but chickadees had opened the way to seeds by the time we got outside to brush things off. Junco numbers have been increasing since the first one showed up last Friday, April 4, but today brought the most we had seen so far, at least 25.
First of Year birds: *Fox Sparrow *Amer. Tree Sparrow pair of *N. Cardinals, first seen April 9, singing in yard yesterday morning. Cardinals reported last week by friends in Tofte - 3 miles away. Possibly one male had been present all winter. Numbers of these are slowly increasing. *Mourning Dove - also seen yesterday Still here, although not seen until late afternoon - *Harris' Sparrow. That species should be able to deal with blowing snow. Seen yesterday for first time but gone today - *Amer. Robins *White-breasted Nuthatch (usually nests in neighborhood, but hadn't been seen since early winter) Also gone today, but probably not far: Eur. Starling. No waterfowl in the big lake today, just big breaking waves, and a few rugged *Herring Gulls, sometimes flying straight into the wind and making good headway. Carol Tveekrem, Schroeder, Cook Co.