And so it's spring. We had one last burst of winter and now a full week of warm weather has everything greening up. The first flowers on the berm in bloom are some scilla escapees from a neighbour's garden.
I think the blackbird in the foreground of this picture is a male rusty blackbird. Usually I class all blackbirds that have yellow eyes as grackles, but because this guy is hanging out with the male and female brown-headed cowbirds in the background, it is easy to tell he is a bit small for a grackle. His beak is also a bit delicate for a grackle. Rusty blackbirds breed in the northern boreal forest so it would make sense for them to be hanging out in Ottawa waiting for the snow and ice to the north to clear away.
