> Hi tweeters,
>
> A female Evening Grosbeak showed up at my sunflower feeder yesterday
> (27 March) evening. This is the first one I've seen since moving here
> over a year ago. In Michigan, Colorado, and Utah, these are winter
> birds; I don't remember seeing one at a feeder before when the weather
> was this warm, nor do I remember seeing single birds instead of
> feeder-emptying flocks of up to 50 birds. Is that not the case here
> in the Northwest? Of course, we _are_ still getting frost in the
> mornings.

Evening Grosbeaks are funny birds, they tend to be, in my experience, rather
sporadic about both their abundance and their appearances. However, not
only are they generally considered winter visitors over most populated
areas, they are also spring migrants, especially in northern US and southern
Canada. During the first week of March, for example, here in mid-vancouver
island, there was a flock of 106 that were gorging themselves on alder
catkins. These were early spring migrants, compared with my notes, they
more typically show up in April. I guess their arrival depends on what kind
of winter was had, if seed crops were abundant somewhere, my guess is they
find it and if seed crops fail in the north, then some years there is a mass
exodus. The spring arrival of these birds then, I guess, depends on what
they did for the winter. The birds that go south for the winter have to return.
Cheers,

Don Cecile
Port Alberni, BC, CANADA V9Y 6Z5
eMAIL: dcecile at cln.etc.bc.ca