Pine Siskins do seem to be very mobile. When I lived in Pocatello, Idaho, I
hosted a large number of Pine Siskins in the winter. All winter long, the
numbers seemed pretty steady. I assumed that the birds were residents, and
when spring arrived, they would return to the hills around Pocatello where I
assumed they nested (I saw siskins in the hills around Pocatello in summer)
or they were from central Idaho, where they are very common in the summer.
At that time, my cat could come and go as she pleased and she brought me
a Pine Siskin one day (she now is banished to the inside). The siskin had a
silver band on it so I took the tattered remains to a bird bander I knew at
Idaho State University. He send the band in and, several weeks later, I
received a nice little certificate stating the bird was banded four years
earlier in south western KANSAS as an AHY (after hatch year so at least 1
year old)! Wow! I never imagined a siskin would fly that far. I still
haven't figured what it was living on in Kansas.

Several years later, I met the man who had banded that bird. He remembered
it (he didn't get many returns from Idaho, let alone a siskin) but couldn't
tell me any more about the bird. It was a great ice breaker.

At my feeder in Albion (just 8 miles southwest of Pullman), the siskins are
very unpredictable. I have one or two that seem to be around all of the
time. On Christmas Eve, it was snowing rather steadily and the feeder and
the ground was covered in siskins, goldfinches, juncos, finches, etc. Now
the feeders are deserted. I went away for four days and they didn't even
empty any of the feeders (I usually have to refill them every day). This
year, I seem to have fewer birds than in the last four years but I also have
two accipiters frequenting the feeder so that could explain some of it.

Good Birding
Deb

Deb Beutler
Dept. of Zoology
Washington State University
Pullman, Whitman Co., WA

dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Libor Michalak <libor at atlas.geomatics.com>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, January 11, 1999 4:00 PM
Subject: RE: Pine Siskins


>I too have experienced the same trend with Pine Siskins (PISI) that Eric
has
>here in the lower mainland of Vancouver, BC. Both my tube feeders are
>sitting vacant presently. I also assume that many others have experienced
>this situation.
>
>Some information that most will find interesting is the scenario I had with
>PISI while I lived in Nelson BC. A year ago I was doing some banding
>studies on PISI in my backyard. Apart from eating me out of approximately
>80$ worth of seed in a season, these guys came and went in waves all the
>time. PISIs are known to be quite vagrantish. Just to give an example of
a
>banding record from Robert Yunick (personal comments) an individual have
>been recovered in BC (Okanagan) that was banded a year ago in Virginia
>area.
>
>The biggest thing I noticed about this species (apart from my focus on the
>species morphometrics) was the cycles that they followed. I banded
>approximately 800 during my study that lasted from about November to April.
>Those dates stick out in my mind because many of the individuals which
>visited my feeder that year were during that time period. They seemed to
>move in waves of varying numbers (20 - 100 or so for me), but the
>interesting thing is that the waves were all composed of new birds. As
soon
>as one wave of birds came and fed for about a week they left, and another
of
>completely new birds moved into feast. I hardly ever saw a return on the
>groups which visited the first time round. I remember about a 10-15%
retrap
>or something.........
>
>Another casual observation was with the weather. Every time there was a
>shift either bad to good, or good to bad it seemed that I got a new
>population come and the one that was there left. Was there some kind of
>intraspecific competition to explain the first leaving???? Sometimes there
>were weeks where I had the feeders empty till a new wave came in following
>some weather front. I also noticed, as with most birds, that their activity
>prior to a bad frontal system, the birds tended to stock up on food.
>
>I am not too sure why this sort of thing happens but it seems that the PISI
>move around like e.g. the American Tree Sparrows (see Bent). I can't seem
>to remember if there was a substantial change in populations, but there
>certainly was a pattern coinciding to the weather.
>
>Thats my story,
>Cheers
>Libor
>============================================
>Libor Michalak
>Sr. Environmental Biologist
>Geomat International Inc.
>201-1600 West 6th Ave
>Vancouver, BC, V6J 1R3
>Phone: 604-738-5551 x225
>Fax: 604-738-5529
>e-mail: libor at geomatics.com
>Web Site: http://www.geomatics.com/geobc/
>============================================
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
>> [mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of StahlfeldE at aol.com
>> Sent: Monday, January 11, 1999 15:23
>> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>> Subject: Pine Siskins
>>
>>
>> Tweets,
>>
>> I wonder about the suggestions that feeder diseases are literally
>> decimating
>> siskin populations. We used to have flocks of dozens at our black-oil
>> feeders, but the two previous winters had only rare single birds.
>> This winter
>> started out the same way, with only an occasional single bird. Then in
>> November we got a huge (for us) flock of more than fifty. Delighted --
>> they're more interesting than house finches -- I put out a thistle feeder
>> designed especially for them (holes are below perches, house
>> finches evidently
>> do not feed upside down). Acrobats, they were.
>>
>> Then came the cold snap in December, and they vanished. Back to only an
>> occasional single bird.
>>
>> Did they die from some disease? I really doubt it. I didn't see
>> any signs of
>> disease. The disappearance was instantaneous, not a gradual
>> diminishing in
>> number. Several other comments also suggest that the siskins disappear
>> quickly.
>>
>> So, does anyone know whether the December cold spell chased the
>> siskins away?
>> The CBC's might show a trend compared to other years, but does
>> anyone else get
>> a feeling that siskin numbers dropped during December?
>>
>> For what it's worth, I am feeding with the kernels of the
>> black-oil seeds, not
>> the whole seed. Cuts down tremendously on the mess below the
>> feeder, and if
>> Jerry Converse's calculations of the relative weights of kernels
>> and hulls are
>> correct then it's not much more expensive. Sure lasts longer in
>> the feeder.
>> Only problem is keeping it dry. I gave up on the thistle,
>> evidently as have
>> others. Impossible to keep condensation in the tube from getting the
seed
>> wet, clogging the holes.
>>
>> Of course, nothing contained herein is intended to lessen
>> potential concerns
>> over feeders harming birds. With that lawyer-like disclaimer,
>> ever enjoying
>> the lively Tweeters discussion, I am
>>
>> Eric Stahlfeld
>> Burien
>>
>