Tweeters,

As Guy states, numbers of siskins vary dramatically from year to year,
not just in the winter, but also in the breeding season. However, the
number of siskins present this year in southern BC, both east and
west of the Cascades, is lower than I can ever remember.

As an example, I have two BBS routes in the Nicola Valley
of southern BC (near Merritt) which I have surveyed most years since 1974.
Pine Siskins, on average, have been the 4th commonest bird on both
of these routes, with an average of 33 on the Brookmere route and
26 on the Canford route. This year, I tallied 4 siskins on the Brookmere
route (2nd lowest count ever), and none at all on the Canford route.
On the latter route, I also missed them in 2005-- the only two times
I have missed them in 16 years on that route.

Perhaps Guy is correct that they will "bounce back" in the near future--
I hope so. However, a quick look at Christmas Bird Count results
for last winter suggested that continental populations of Pine Siskins
were way below average. They were scarce to absent almost throughout
the western US and Canada, and numerous only in the Great Lakes
region.

If there is a disease problem with siskins, it is much more likely to be
salmonellosis rather than West Nile virus. There have been some
massive die-offs of siskins in the past due to salmonella outbreaks,
although I'm not aware of a major outbreak in the past year or so.

The numbers of siskins should be closely watched in the near future.
However, there is no question that disease outbreaks, as well as
food availability, can have a big effect on their numbers over
large areas.


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








----- Original Message -----
From: "Guy L. Monty" <guylmonty at hotmail.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 11:24 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] RE: Pine Siskins


Hi siskin seekers,

The situation is much the same on Vancouver Island. Pine Siskins have
been virtually absent for almost a year now, after being pretty much ever
present and sometimes abundant, for at least 15 years. This isn't unusual
though, it's a natural function of finches moving around as their food
resources change.

I spent this spring in the NW corner of BC near the BC/Alaska border. Pine
Siskins, along with White-winged Crossbills and Common Redpolls, were
amazingly abundant there. The number of recently fledged young was
impressive as well. Last year in the same areas at the same time of year, we
had only a very few Pine Siskins, and no crossbills or redpolls.

In short, they will be back.

Guy L. Monty
Port McNeil, BC