Dennis:
>If you keep watch on the sky, that same sky that was filled with Turkey
>Vultures a week or so ago, you'll see flocks of robins and Cedar Waxwings
>zooming overhead, often (but not always) southward bound.

Our observers at Bonney Butte also reported that they were inundated
by pine siskens last week, for a few days. And white-crowned sparrows
reached pestilential proportions in the Goshutes about 10 or so days
ago (after I left). We finally got organized enough to conduct
daily non-raptor surveys at the site this year, though they were
short and shoe-horned 'tween arising and breakfast. We'd like to
trigger enough interest to be able to afford to keep a couple of
folks busy doing this on a more systematic basis, and to run
a passerine banding station, but thus far have been unable to
secure funding (due to the fact that our food and water must
be helicoptered to the site, even feeding a couple extra volunteers
costs a fair amount). Thus far, BLM's only shown interest in
funding our raptor work.

Of course, being raptor people we're only pretending this interest
in passerines and other raptor bait simply to improve our image :)

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>