I had a male Red-winged Blackbird at my feeder in Albion, Whitman Co., WA on
Wednesday, Jan. 13, 1999. Then, on Saturday, Jan. 16, 1999, I saw a flock
of about twenty near the Shopko in Lewiston, Nez Perce, Co., Idaho. This
seemed early to me also.

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

dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Joanne Powell <jhpowell at snapwa.org>
To: SAS BirdList <WA-SPOKANE-BIRD at LIST.AUDUBON.ORG>; tweeters
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, January 17, 1999 8:49 AM
Subject: "Early" Birds?


>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
>