Earliest Ever Red-wing Blackbirds

Most years, I'm on the lookout for red-winged blackbirds--scanning the roadsides where the habitat is right.  This year, I hadn't even begun that spring tradition.  While observing and counting birds in our backyard for the Great Backyard Bird Count, I was surprised to see not only one, but soon two male redwings show up the fourth and final day of the count! :)

 I have never seen them this early.  I even searched back into the archives of this blog--the closest thing that I have to a gardening journal...although they seem to arrive more often than not around mid-March, I have seen them later...and as early as the 4th of March one year...but February is new to me.  Even after reading posts on Facebook of a friend who had already seen them, I was expecting a to have to wait a bit for them to get from South-Western PA to North Eastern PA.  Let's hope that they are bringing an early spring with them.