I sit here wondering what's down in the woods with the passage of the cold front. How many warblers and other migrants are hunkering down in our woods waiting for the south winds to return? Can I go down there? No. I have to go to LTC this weekend and miss one of the better birding moments of the spring. Sigh. And then I'm busy the next two weekends taking lifeguard classes. They didn't have anything available in May, so I get to take two weekends in April. Fortunately I can get out in the evenings and see what's happening. I'm scheduling NOTHING during the day for the last weekend of April and first weekend of May.

On another note, I haven't seen the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at my feeder lately. I wonder if he's gone up north to establish his breeding territory. What I have seen at my feeders lately is House Sparrows. I'm not real happy about that.

Once again, the Purple Martins have not nested in my gourds or house. I'm really disappointed. When I look on the Purple Martin Conservation Association website, I'm doing everything right - good location, good clearance, good EVERYTHING!!! So why can't I get martins? I hold out hope because of a customer at the Dallas WBU store who came in all excited one day and told me that she finally had martins nesting with her. I asked how long she had been trying to get them and she said, "Ten years." Six more to go . . . I keep a glimmer of hope. I sold a martin house to a guy mid-May one time and warned him that the martins wouldn't nest with him that year. He said he understood but wanted the house up anyway. Two days later, he came in and told me that he had a pair of martins hanging out around his house. A week later he came in and told me that they were nesting. So, there's always hope. It just diminishes GREATLY the further through April we go.