Hi, Tweeters

I leave my feeders up all year, except for the hummingbird feeders, and
have all of the usual forest birds such as juncos, chickadees, pileated,
sparrows, kinglets, towhees - all of the species already mentioned. What
has surprised me is that I've had hardly any mallards or band-tailed
pigeons. (I'm on Bothell's highest hill - I think - and it's very
forested.) The mallards have been coming for years, usually starting right
after their molt, and all fall/winter/spring I have from 20-40+ fly in
every day. They take advantage of goose Lucifer's tub, cracked corn, and
other foods that I put on the ground for the newest alien, a silver
pheasant. The bandtails are also usually present in fair numbers, but not
this fall. I saw 3-4 mallards for a few days a week ago and that's been
about it. Perhaps it *is* the milder weather; the leaves are slow to go
off some of the trees, too.

Cheers, Diann

Diann MacRae
Olympic Vulture Study
22622 - 53rd Avenue S.E.
Bothell, WA 98021
tvulture at halcyon.com
http://www.halcyon.com/tvulture/