Subject: [Tweeters] Pine Siskens
Date: May 8 07:30:58 2006
From: Gene Bullock - bullockg at earthlink.net


[Forwarded for Paul Below]

I have had zero pine siskens at my feeders this winter or spring. This is
the first year that has happened, so I went to the Project Feederwatch web
site and checked counts from the past seasons for the State of Washington.

Pine Siskens are an irruptive species, and so their numbers and distribution
vary from year to year. However, I wanted to know if this year is unusual.

These feederwatch counts are for the State of Washington, for Pine Siskens.
For each season (feederwatch runs from November through March), I have
listed the peak percent of feeders that reported pine siskens (the reports
are in 2 week groups), and the average number of Pine Siskens counted when
they were seen. As you can see, the 2005-2006 season is historically low in
percent of feeders reporting pine siskens, and in the number of birds
present when seen. There is data for the last 18 years, with one year
missing for some reason.

05-06, 12%, 4.0
04-05, 74%, 7.8
03-04, 60%, 6.7
02-03, 54%, 5.2
01-02, 74%, 6.9
00-01, 80%, 8.6
99-00, 64%, 6.3
98-99, 60%, 5.3
97-98, 55%, 6.6
96-97, 56%, 5.9
95-96, 77%, 13.7
94-95, 45%, 4.8
93-94, 51%, 6.2
92-93, 85%, 10.4
91-92 (insufficient data)
90-91, 60%, 6.0
89-90, 81%, 14.5
88-89, 71%, 12.1

Paul Below
Poulsbo

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