Among the flocks of mallards that frequent the ponds on my tree
farm (I feed them cracked corn) is a male gadwall that mimics all
of the antics of the mallards. I appears that he thinks he is a
mallard. Is this a result of imprinting after egg-dumping by a
female gadwall, and how common is it?

Up to a month ago, I had flocks of hundreds of siskins gorging
sunflower chips and Niger thistle seeds, approximately one to
two pounds per day. A sharp-shin began raiding raiding the flocks
daily, and suddenly the siskins stopped coming, all but a dozen
or so. I still, however, occasionally find a dead siskin,
presumably from bird cholera, and the sharp-shin is still around.
Is the sharp-shin immune to the diseases that plague the siskins,
or is he too vulnerable from eating sick siskins?

Now that the siskins are no longer mobbing the feeders, the
finches are back, along with a male downy, the first one I have
ever had at the chip feeder. The female downy patrobizes the
suet ball.

Erin Flanagan
Redmond, WA
<wwwbike at scn.org>