{"id":10051,"date":"2014-03-21T18:12:08","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T01:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=10051"},"modified":"2014-03-21T18:12:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T01:12:08","slug":"seasonal-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=10051","title":{"rendered":"Seasonal change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes March 20<sup>th<\/sup> or 21<sup>st<\/sup> is proclaimed as the official first day of spring. This, of course, is nonsense: no officials have ever proclaimed this&#8212;and why would they? Further, the idea is silly: spring arrives slowly and at a different time in Rossland than in Creston. The dates mark the spring equinox, an astronomical event that may or may not correspond to a useful local meteorological transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet, at roughly this time of year (as distinct from on this particular date) there is a gradual transition to springtime. Here are a few birds seen over the last few days that speak to this change.<\/p>\n<p>For a week or so, I have been treated to the song of the Varied Thrush, but spotting one of these skittish birds, let alone photographing one, proved difficult until this morning. This bird might well be passing through the region to breed farther north.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10057\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/variedthrush140321s.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Similarly, this soaring Red-tailed Hawk might stay around here, but is more likely to head farther north to breed.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10055\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/redtailedhawk140320s2.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Hooded Mergansers are likely to stay around and breed. The male is on the left.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10054\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/hoddies140320s.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This Northern Flicker couple is clearly planning for chicks. Last year, flickers carved a cavity in this piling, but did not nest there. Maybe this year, they will.\u00a0<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10056\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/flickers140321s2.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Sometimes March 20th or 21st is proclaimed as the official first day of spring. This, of course, is nonsense: no officials have ever proclaimed this&#8212;and why would they? Further, the idea is silly: spring arrives slowly and at a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=10051\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10051"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10065,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10051\/revisions\/10065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}