Weekend feeder update

There hasn't been a whole lot of change in the feeder gang this week. A lone Evening Grosbeak was here for a day. A pair of male Pine Grosbeaks and 5 or 6 American Goldfinches are daily visitors.

Here's what I've seen today:

Red-bellied Woodpecker -1
Hairy Woodpecker - 3
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Mourning Dove - 1
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Blue Jay - 10 +
Black-capped Chickadee - 10 +
American Tree Sparrow - 2
American Goldfinch - 6
Pine Grosbeak - 2

While the bird activity has been constant this week, deer visits and persistence are on the rise.

A flourish of winter finches

Our sighting of our first Pine Grosbeaks of the season yesterday presaged an influx of other "new" birds at our backyard feeder. Before noon, the feeder had been visited by a pair of Pine Grosbeaks, 15 Evening Grosbeaks, several Common Goldfinches and singles of Pine Siskin and Common Redpoll.

Return of the Evening Grosbeaks

Throughout this week, we've had between one and six Evening Grosbeaks at the feeder. These birds put on a great show last season but we weren't counting on seeing them this winter. The nearest observations we'd heard of were of a handful of birds at Algonquin Park, a few hours to the north.

The spruce trees around ou house have produced a heavy crop of cones and these have attracted flocks of White-winged Crossbills. None have been tempted to sample the offerings from the feeders below.

Grosbeak vs. Grosbeak

More Blackburnian Warblers are singing in the patches of eastern hemlock along an adjacent cottage road. Each year, a few remain to breed.

A handful of Evening Grosbeaks continue to visit our feeders. Here is a brief video showing the usual outcome of an encounter between Evening and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at the feeder.

After the storm the pecking order was set aside

Here we have Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Grosbeaks and a Hairy Woodpecker. It isn't common for us to see both grosbeaks on the feeder at the same time. Typically, the Evening Grosbeaks displace the Pine Grosbeaks. After a prolonged, very heavy blizzard, these birds seemed more intent upon feeding.

Martha snapped this shot while I shoveled snow. Click on the image to see it at its best.

Winter finch arrivals

Each winter brings a new mix of birds to the feeders outside our windows. A flock of 100+ Common Redpolls, accompanied by Pine Siskins and Common Goldfinches, ate nearly 50 kg of niger seed during the winter of 2005-2006. Last year, we didn't see a single Common Redpoll or Evening Grosbeak. This year is another story altogether.

Evening Grosbeaks first appeared in September and have stayed. Presently, we have two or three flocks totaling about 50 birds.
Common Redpolls now festoon the niger silo and the snow beneath. A few of the paler Redpolls may indeed be Hoary Redpolls but there seem to be intermediately coloured birds as well. Some day soon I will step up to meet Jean Iron's Redpoll Challenge, which involves learning to recognize the four redpoll subspecies presently wintering in Ontario.

This year-to-year variation makes backyard birding all the more interesting. To some, these movements may seem erratic but they're not. The so-called "irruptions" of northern bird species are caused by failures of staple food crops in the boreal forest and beyond. Ron Pittaway has acquired some expertise in predicting the movements of "northern birds". His 2007-2008 Winter Finch Forecast is spot-on.