Hey, I for one am glad to hear about the gold-finch info. (and the Kestrel
also, are they suffering in population size around here?) as I have just
ordered one of the $20.00 finch feeders that are supposed to be squirrel
resistant and last 10/15 years from Bosley's Pet shop U. Village and
bought some of their Niger seed thistle. I'm hoping it will be in today
from one of the other stores so I can put it up before I go on holiday for
the weekend and that when I return I will see some finches. What else can
I expect to see at a thistle feeder.

I just joined "tweeters" after calling Audubon about a flicker sighting I
had last Monday when I stayed home from work ill and they gave me the
listproc address etc. to get on so I could describe the sighting. We
first thought it might have even been a gilded flicker but when I
mentioned it had a red bar at the nape of the neck we concluded it was a
yellow-shafted. It's back was to me most of the time so could not
determine if it was male or female but I was so excited because I
generally have had a red-shafted female and assumed it was her until I saw
the bright yellow tail feathers briefly and then watched it until it flew
and saw the beautiful yellow wings underneath! I have been at work the
rest of the week so don't know if it has been back or not but hope to see
something tomorrow morning before catching a ferry to Lopez for Christmas.

My husband has been lucky enough to see a downy woodpecker at the suet
feeder twice and I haven't seen it yet. This is the first time he has
actually gotten the bird book out to identify something new at the feeder
so he is getting the birding bug! I'm happy for him! Sorry this is kind
of long but I am excited about the new sightings at my feeder as I have
only been at this location since June and this is our first Winter birding
experience in a somewhat sylvan neighborhood and you can really tell the
difference in the species you get.

One more quick note! Does anyone know about the meitered conures that
hang out in the Maple Leaf area in the Winter time and leave in the Spring
until October? I'd like to know if they have been around this year since
we moved from their. I'm hoping to attract them to my new place but it
will be difficult because my best trees for feeders are on the side and
back. I can hope! Okay, that's all! Lizz


On 22 Dec 1999, Ed Newbold wrote:

> Hi All,
>=20
> A big female Am. Kestrel was perch hunting the I-5 margin by Boeing Field=
this
> afternoon. Since this is one of the birds I constantly worry about (I=
=92m sure
> that does it a lot of good!), I was very pleased to see it.
>=20
> The juvenile Harris Sparrow that visits our backyard is getting more skit=
tish
> along with the others as the hen Sharpy continues to aggressively patrol
> around here, but it did show up again today.=20
>=20
> By the way, I guess everybody else already knows about how effective this=
tle
> feeders are, but I didn't. I put an upside down thistle tube feeder out =
a
> week ago and within two days a Goldfinch showed up and now at the very le=
ast 4
> are regular. Plus the House Finch and House Sparrows aren=92t interested
> (Hooray!).=20
>=20
> --Ed Newbold from residential Beacon Hill, Seattle, who never gives gifts=
at
> newboldwildlife at netscape.net
>=20
>=20
>=20
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webm=
ail.netscape.com.
>=20