Birders,

Just after daybreak this morning, while I was driving north on BC
Highway 5 between Hope and Merritt, I encountered a flock of at least
300 COMMON REDPOLLS. The location was about 5 km south of the toll
booth, or just south of the Falls Lake exit. The birds were feeding
on the seeds of Sitka Alders which lined both sides of the highway,
but periodically they would land on the (snow-covered) road surface as
well (presumably to get road salt or some other mineral?) I stopped
briefly to look at the birds, and while I was stopped, several large
trucks roared by. I found at least 4 redpolls that had been killed by
vehicles, and I'm afraid the toll could get much higher.

All of the birds appeared to be COMMON REDPOLLS-- no HOARY REDPOLLS,
PINE SISKINS, or other species that I could detect in the flock.

This has been an impressive winter for redpolls, but so far, this is
the biggest single flock I've heard of anyone seeing in southern B.C.
or the northwestern U.S. Has anyone seen a bigger flock??

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca