Subject: [Tweeters] Where were all the Pine Siskins??
Date: Apr 6 15:08:46 2006
From: Wayne C. Weber - contopus at telus.net


Tweeters,

There has been a lot of discussion on both TWEETERS and OBOL
about the shortage of Pine Siskins over the winter, continuing up to
the present time. I have yet to see one in 2006.

Considering that the Vancouver, BC CBC, which I compiled for many years,
has a long-term average of about 2300 Pine Siskins, and has tallied
over 6000 on several occasions, the lack of Siskins this winter is striking.

As the Christmas Bird Count data have all been submitted, I thought
it would be worth checking the results at the BIRDSOURCE website
to see just where Pine Siskins were this winter. The results are
interesting.

It looks like the biggest number of Siskins this winter (In December and
early Jan., anyway) were around the Great Lakes. Out of the 20 count circles
with the highest Pine Siskin totals, 13 of them were in Minnesota, Ontario,
Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Only 4 counts tallied more than 1000 Pine Siskins, and only 10 counts
tallied more than 400. Without detailed comparisons with previous years, it
seems to me that not only were siskins concentrated around the
Great Lakes, but the total numbers recorded for the continent seem
very low.

There was one anomalous high count from the northern BC coast;
Terrace logged 1289 Pine Siskins. (The nearby Prince Rupert count, normally
compiled by my brother Robin Weber, was unfortunately not held this winter.)
As far as I can see, the highest count in Washington was 441 (Vashon I.);
in Oregon, 201 (Beaverton); and in California, 394 (Point Reyes Peninsula).
These are not very impressive numbers.

The complete list of the top 20 CBC totals for Pine Siskin is:

Duluth, MN 2669
Thunder Bay, ON 1602
Terrace, BC 1289
Two Harbors, MN 1081
Aurora, MN 668
Kenora, ON 552
Medford, WI 517
Vashon, WA 441
Portal, AZ 419
North Bay, ON 407
Point Reyes, CA 394
Gwinn, MI 335
Clam Lake, WI 327
Gravenhurst, ON 314
Arcata, CA 306
Atikokan, ON 306
Redlands, CA 283
Roaring Fork, CO 258
Hayward Lakes, MI 246
Keewenaw Bay, MI 242

Someone will surely do a more detailed analysis than this, using results
from Project Feederwatch as well as the CBC, but at least now
we have some idea where the siskins went!

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net