Melting ice and shrinking snow create a cool perfume. Its sweet scent calls out to wild wings. A welcome mat is out.

With each disappearing snowdrift and receding ice cap, the north country shouts “vacancies, vacancies!”

Our feathered friends hear it.

It is such a joy to greet back even our ordinary birds. To the robin huddled beneath the bushes in the back yard, welcome home.

Karen Wils photo Goose eggs in nest.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard Duck, long time no see; make yourselves at home here on this pond or lake. It’s great to hear your bossy voice over the marshlands again, red winged black bird.

The month of March is such a transitional month. From winter chickadees at the bird feeder to nesting owls and eagles, it’s a great month for birding.

Everyone knows the excitement of seeing the first robin of the season. We share the happy moment with family and friends, and we might even throw out a few crusts of bread to the hungry robin on the still-frozen ground.

As soon as slits of blue water open up, gulls and geese are there with their squawks and honks. How can anything be so happy about cold water?

The sandhill cranes return to give rusty looking lumps of life to our drab and wet fields. Migratory hawks flock back to Michigan by the end of March. Every bird is looking for a place to put down some roots, eat, nest and spend the summer.

A new brightness is in the woods. New arrivals like the eastern phoebe, yellow-bellied sap suckers and the rose breasted grosbeaks are showing up every day.

It is such a joy just to take a listen outside at dawn to hear the different voices in the woods and by the water and fields.

Every pair of feathered friends returning to the U.P. hope to find their niche (along with all of the year-round birds) and a place to raise a brood.

The Canada geese — which back in the 1970s were a pretty rare sight — are eager to claim a piece of shoreline or river bank to call home and lay some eggs.

It’s hard to believe that the hardy barred owls and eagles are already sitting on eggs on these cold nights.

The woodcock will be back in our neck of the woods soon ready to make her nest on the ground, snow or no snow!

Soon, we will be waking up to the cheery sound of robins. The kill-deer and the sand piper will be serenading us on our walks.

Mother Nature’s magic after a long, cold winter is truly a joy.

——

Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.