Yesterday, the last day of February, I walked over to Fort Phoenix state beach. It’s a 45 minute walk, and once I got there I didn’t walk out on the hurricane barrier to look at the harbor, and I completely ignored the beach itself. I walked all the way to the far end of the park where the Red-winged Blackbirds like to congregate. Suddenly I heard one, the familiar “konk-a-reeee!” By the time I got to the boundary of the park, I could hear dozens of them. I couldn’t see them, and I didn’t want to walk through the yards of the private houses where I knew they were roosting. But it was good enough for now just to hear them, a sure sign of spring.