Subject: Beginning birder
Date: Feb 26 14:31:27 1999
From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney - festuca at olywa.net
Pat Moore asked: " Also, what is the likelihood that I have pine siskins
at a tube feeder (w/thistle)?"
About as likely as rain on the weekend.... :-)
Pat, I usually don't feed thistle, but get hyak siskins at my feeder with
sunflower seeds. They're not adverse to taking any seed, though,
and I've always enjoyed watching them in late summer feeding on
the dandelion (Taraxacum and Hypochaeris) seeds in the yard.
The neighbors probably don't appreciate my allowing 'weed' seeds
to flourish in the yard, but oh, well..... And, siskins LOVE thistle seed,
as do the other finches.
The siskins tend to be 'irruptive' in a lot of areas. A couple of winters
ago, I had over 200 siskins coming to the feeders. This year, I've not
seen more than about a dozen at a time, here in my Olympia yard.
Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net