Tweeters,

About March 23 Dennis Paulson spent the weekend birding in Northeastern
Washington.One of his stated objectives was redpolls, of which he found
none. He wondered if the alder and birch trees had shed their seeds, thus
making these trees unattractive to redpolls.

I had the following encounters with redpolls in Eastern Washington in March.
None were in either alders or birches, in contrast to my December and
January observations, which were mostly in birches (or feeders with niger
sunflower seeds). However, I had the following observations of Common
Redpolls away from these trees.

March 2. Two were feeding on Big Sagebrush seed on the crest of Umtanum
Ridge at 4,000 feet. This was at the head of Black Canyon in the Wenas
region. Both Ellen and I were quite certain the redpolls were foraging on
these seeds, as we watched them clambering about the shedding seed heads in
the shrubs. Seed littered the snow beneath these sagebrush, also; the birds
were ground feeding here, too.

March 9. Several hundred redpolls were nervously flying about weedy fields
about 7 miles west of Mansfield on the Waterville Plateau. We (WOS
fieldtrip) watched them high in introduced cottonwood trees, also, though
they were not feeding in these trees.

March 24. Several dozen redpolls were noted at the White Bluffs on the
Hanford National Monument. They were foraging again in weedy fields, loosely
associating with American Goldfinch.

I would agree with Dennis that evidently both birches and alder had shed the
bulk of their seed by late this winter. My observations are these birds
switched to other sources of seed.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net