A flock of eight young male red-winged blackbirds showed up today at my
suet block. It seemed to me that this was pretty early for Eastern
Washington. I checked my FeederWatch records from 1998 and found that they
were here for my Feb 20-21 records but not earlier. There are some RWBB
(what is the correct abbreviation for them?) that overwinter south of the
Reardan area but none here in "my" valley. Also, I noticed from last year I
had only 4 House Sparrows and now I have at least 24...ugh!!

For 1997 two appeared on Feb 7; in my 1996 records one showed up on Jan 27,
then none until Feb 26 when a flock of 24 appeared.

I'd like to hear from any other "easterners" if they have noticed RWBB or
other species showing up a month early. I realized a 4-year period is not a
whole lot of time for a wildlife trend to show up but ... just curious!

Regards, Joanne
jhpowell at snapwa.org
Reardan (Spokane) WA