The earliest migrants are water lovers: red-winged blackbirds, gulls, kingfishers, and ducks are pouring north / Ravens are early nesters and may be seen now carrying building materials to the construction site / Heavy snow will send robins to sumac berries / Killdeer will return to dry fields soon after the snow retreats / Ermines are beginning to turn from white to brown / Screech owl females are sitting on four or five round, white eggs. The males bring food

The fungus called scarlet cup is a sign that spring is on the way. Only an inch or two across, its little cups are lined with bright red, spore-bearing sacs / Male northern harriers arrive from the southern U.S. Females will return about 10 days later. Look for them hunting over open wet areas / When the snow melts, don’t blame shrews for those tunnels you see in the lawn. They do live there, but the tunnels were made by moles / Crows are building nests

Peak of black duck migration / Male common snipe have returned and begin their aerial displays before the females arrive, about two weeks later. Listen for their eerie, wavering sounds from wet meadows / Sharp-shinned hawks are arriving, sometimes following flocks of smaller birds and picking off the stragglers. Birds make up about 95 percent of a sharpie’s diet / The drumming of woodpeckers, like the songs of male songbirds, is a territorial advertisement