Or at least the blackbirds seem to think so.

I watch for them every year. Blackbirds, like the Summer People, are seasonal residents. The blackbirds’ return from their winter haunts down south is one of the first signs of spring in the Adirondacks, where signs of spring are greatly appreciated.

Any sign of spring, even if it involves mud season or huge flocks of flapping, squawking, burbling birds creating a ruckus in the trees, is appreciated around here. Even ice jams in the AuSable River can be exciting, unless you live in Frog Alley in Keene Valley or Jersey in AuSable Forks or some other flood zone, in which case the breakup of ice jams can be a little too exciting.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, male red-winged blackbirds, with their glossy black feathers and red and yellow shoulder patches, are hard to mistake. Females are a streaky dark brown.

Every March the red-winged blackbirds fly in with their cohorts, the starlings, grackles and cowbirds. The males arrive first. They are true harbingers of spring.

A harbinger is a forerunner, a precursor or herald, one who comes before. In medieval times the word referred to a person who was sent ahead of a traveling party to secure lodging, which is sort of what the male blackbirds do.

I did read, however, that it is the female blackbird who has the main say in where the nest is built, so maybe the truth is not as neatly and tidily packaged as we would like. I mean, if the females are just going to choose the nesting site anyway, what is the point of the males making such a great to-do of congregating en masse with their buddies and heading up North where there is generally still snow on the ground? Why are they so loud and boisterous, repeatedly calling “conk-la-reee!” once they arrive? What purpose does it all serve? Maybe the Cornell Lab of Ornithology can explain it, but I just write it off as a guy thing.

Let us hope the female red-winged blackbirds are well rested before they fly north, because they have a lot of work ahead of them, weaving nests from cattail leaves and willow bark near the water. They’ll hang out together there for the summer like sister wives, about five of them, each with her own nest, in a territory presided over by one male.

Ornithologists, nosy parkers that they are, have established by means of DNA testing that these sister wives do not mate solely with this presiding male, however.

While both males and females are fierce in defending their territory, red-winged blackbirds will tolerate the parasitic egg-laying behavior of cowbirds.

The brown-headed cowbird is a kind of blackbird termed a brood parasite. Instead of bothering to build nests, the female simply lays her eggs in other birds’ nests, nor does she show any interest in caring for her young. Cowbird young hatch earlier than most other birds, so they get a head start if they have nurturing adoptive parents. Robins, blue jays and catbirds puncture cowbird eggs or roll them out of their nests, but not red-winged blackbirds. This may be the reason the cowbirds like to travel with them.

Some years I don’t see or hear any blackbirds until late March, but it varies. March 3 is the earliest return date I’ve observed so far. Does an early resurgence of blackbirds mean that we’re going to have an early spring?

No. We tend to give birds and other creatures credit for predicting the weather, but I don’t believe that blackbirds, relaxing down in Florida, have any idea or instinctive sense of how the weather is shaping up in the North Country.

“Is it that time already?” A female blackbird marvels. “You guys are flying north? Won’t it still be awfully cold?”

“Honey, my gut tells me more than those meteorologists’ brains can ever tell them,” the male replies. “My gut tells me it’s time to go. If you hurry, maybe you can nest in my territory again.”

“Uh hunh. You take care now.”

In reality, he and his buddies don’t have a clue. It just depends on how antsy they feel in any given year, or when they get it together to take off.

Have a good week.