On Tuesday. 9/25 the juncos showed up in my back yard. I had a dozen or
more goldfinches and a similar number of house finches, several purple finches,
several house sparrows, some black-capped chicadees and two red-breasted
nuthatches knocking feed out of the feeders. About a dozen juncos, seven
mourning doves, two northern flickers, and a scrub jay were taking turns cleaning up
the ground all watched over by a squirrel. Earlier in the week I saw a
junco on a couple of occasions, but only one at a time. This was the first full
fledged appearance. Juncos are a regular customer at my feeders and I expect
they are here for the winter. This was the first time I had seen flickers on
the ground in my back yard. The back yard usually isn't quite this birdy.

Sunday of this week all the finches were still here. Since then not a
single goldfinch and I didn't see a single house finch today. Juncos and morning
doves are still plentiful. House sparrows and black-capped chicadees are
also currently regular customers at the feeders.

The back yard itself is about 40 x 100, grass with a cedar fence. Back of
one corner is a mature Douglas fir, while back of the other is a mature cedar.
About centered on the back fence in the neighbors yard is an apple tree.

Wednesday at Ridgefield WLR I saw a junco independently but about the same
time as Roger Windemuth and Al Larrabee recorded their first sighting of junco
on the reserve this fall.

Jeff Jendro
Longview, WA
_jeffjendro at aol.com_ (mailto:jeffjendro at aol.com)



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