Good-Bye Juncos

The weather is warming, the snow is melted, and spring is most definitely advancing on northern Utah, so I was surprised last weekend to see a pair of foraging dark-eyed juncos near Skipper Bay in Provo. These birds are rare in my backyard but I see them quite regularly through the winter as I hit the wooded trails, but I don't recall seeing them quite so late in the past couple of years. It was a pleasure to see them, with the warm colors the lowering sun cast on their plumage were an ironic contrast to their preference for chillier climates.

Having watched their energetic foraging along the trail for a few minutes, I was fairly sure that would be my last sighting of these dark-eyed, light-billed beauties this winter, but this afternoon I was proven wrong. I heard the spring chorus of an eager male house finch looking for a mate from one of the trees near my backyard and when I looked for him, I saw a sprightly visitor bouncing around the same tree. A quick glance through the binns and I knew the juncos had come to say good-bye: they flitted through the trees for a few minutes before flying off.

See you next winter.