Subject: Late fledglings
Date: Sep 7 08:05:08 1999
From: Joanne H. Powell - jhpowell at snapwa.org


Re recent postings about late fledglings; I have a few here and am wondering
if they are really all that late or it just seems late in the year because
it's so blasted cold...22 F this morning at 6. In fact, in the last week at
my place (a long narrow valley that is a cold sink) the 6am temperature has
ranged between 22 and 32F.

I have pine siskin fledglings (3), house finch (2) and A. goldfinch (2).
There are a couple of spotted towhees who are still brown streaked with just
hints of adult plumage showing through.

This morning I saw 2 adult and 3 juve white-crowned sparrows jostling around
the suet block that sits on a grate wired to the lilac bush/tree outside the
kitchen window. First white-crowned I've seen in a couple of months.
Yesterday, a juve rufous male and a female black-chinned were still coming
to the feeder.

The top of my driveway is about 300 feet higher than my house and it's
wide-open prairie there so it's pretty good Mt. bluebird habitat. I put a
birdhouse up and was really exited to see the Mt. bluebirds successfully
fledge 4 young. I thought they would have left long ago but when I drove in
yesterday afternoon 6 Mt. bluebirds were mobbing a brown bird about
robin-sized. Also, after passing the bluebird house the driveway turns and
starts downward through a small pine forest where I saw a flock of about 20
robins. I didn't know the robins were still here in those numbers - there
are always some that winter over but usually in town.

It's interesting to note that it doesn't take much in the way of elevation
to change what I see at the feeders. The up-and-down migrations, while not
as dramatic as the north-south migrations, are still pretty neat. There are
juncos up in the "forest" but none at the feeders this time of year. Yet in
a few weeks (I hope longer than that...I would like a little more summer
here!) they will be back at the feeders. The same is true for the Mt and
Black-capped chickadees; lots of fledglings early on and then no chickadees
until it gets cold enough to drive them back down the hill to the feeders.

Lately I've been hearing Great horned owls hooting up and down the creek in
front of my house. Since it's too early for breeding, are they establishing
territory? I think there was an earlier posting about hearing GHO but if
there was a response re the time of year I may have missed it.

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