Hi Tweeters and Jim, today we got almost an inch of snow in our yard, and the
birds were very, very active! When I went out, there were LOTS of juncos (not
very unusual). Then I started hearing our little winter residents (it seems),
except now they were all flocked closely together in the thick snow, and I
could get a good count of the whole flock, and not just spread out groups of
3-20, no, now there were 54 RED CROSSBILLS, and 70+ PINE SISKENS flying over!
In the flocks I tried to locate other more rare winter finches, but couldn't.
The other day we had about 20 of the Red Crossbills in the low trees in our
yard, and one beautiful male flew about 12 feet away from me! They have been
around since about 12/20/99 (estimate, probably before then) and continue to
visit our yard and the trees around our yard every day. That's about all,
Good Birding!

Visit my birding website at:
http://hometown.aol.com/birdking88/index.html

Birdking88 at aol.com
Charlie W. Wright
Sumner, WA
Age 11