Yesterday was a day off from trying to chase down elusive non-arriving migrating birds. We joined a working party of volunteers from Bird Protection Quebec down at their Philipsburg bird sanctuary to erect new Wood Duck nesting boxes around the pond before the ice thaws and the area becomes inaccessible.

In the process we added a beautiful adult Bald Eagle to the year list (not to the patch list, however) and J saw a eastern Bluebird that has overwintered there … I, however, was elsewhere at the time. Driving back, we saw soaring above the highway a very pale example of the pale morph of Rough-legged Hawk … what a day. That brings the year list to 39 species … it’s going to take off like a rocket once April and May arrive and the birds start to return.

This is a really special place – always worth the (very non-green) drive down to see it.