When does spring usually come for you? Up here I think of winter as having just started. We've got quite a ways to go before thinking about spring. How wonderful to see twelve Bluebirds. It's so fun to watch them flock together in the winter, and suddenly vie for territory come spring.

Oh, I know winter is not nearly over. I live in zone 8. Ice and snow are a rare events for us and very rare for Dec. Jan. and Feb. are usually our coldest months. We get breaks in the winter weather, with an occasional few warm days when it may reach 70. Saturday was 53 (Definitely a sign of things to come)

The warmest it got here today was 18 degrees. When do your Blues start nesting down there in zone 8? Last spring the Bluebirds here laid their first egg on April 6th, and we still had ice storms while they were brooding their young.

The warmer weather doesn't seem to speed up the nesting here. I have never had a nest before April, and only 2 nests per season. Keep hoping for a 3rd.

Here in Ohio, February is technically the last FULL month of winter. I remember last year we got blasted with inches of snow at the end of February,a Hosp already had a box claim (when snow was still on the ground)and it reached near 70 in the 2nd week of march.

So I consider the season to start here on March 1st. My blues usually start re-appearing on the 1st weekend of march. They mate here weeks before they nest. My 1st BB nest started on the last week of march last year.

Late February through march is Hosp trapping time for me. It usually continues though because new ones keep showing up.

Think positive! January is almost over! We are marching our way to spring! haha just don't think about it 24/7 or it will seem like a decade before we get there!