spring is just around the corner

There was a tufted titmouse perched in the Russian Parking Space Blockers' tree (as opposed to my own illegal tree) in the morning. The condo association may frown on unit owners' trees but hey, until that tree matured I never had a tufted titmouse that close to my kitchen window.

We had this 52 degree warm spell yesterday and I can actually see a small patch of bare ground in my back yard. That must mean spring is coming.

Other signs that spring is out there somewhere on the horizon:

• The Lloyd Center is looking for piping plover monitors for this year.
• The Monmouth County Park System in New Jersey is looking for beach nesting bird monitors too.(I think they mean beach-nesting birds not beach-nesting monitors :-))
  
• Folks down in Florida have been counting wintering shorebirds.
  

OK, that last one's not really a sign of spring unless baseball players are involved :-) but the fact that I could find three items of interest about piping plovers in the news surely is such a sign.