The T-bird is back
First towhee
Rufous-sided Towhees—now there's an appropriate name—are among the earliest landbird migrants, and that's hardly surprising, given that at least some of them only fly down to the Carolinas to spend the winter. I start looking for them in March, and the first sign of that towhees have returned is typically a lot of scurrying in the underbrush. Robins do that, too, but if the bird then pops up on a branch and gives a somewhat annoyed note that sounds like "chewink," it's clearly a towhee. And if the pretty bird then tells you to "Drink your tee-hee-hee-hee"—its wonderful song—well, no doubt, the T-birds are home. We're still drinking hot tea, but the reappearance of towhees gives us hope that, sooner or later, we'll be needing the iced variety.