Subject: [Tweeters] Stevens Pass finches
Date: Jan 27 20:37:52 2008
From: Ryan Merrill - rmerrill27 at gmail.com


Matt's post the other day reminded me that I hadn't posted about my last
trip up to Steven's Pass. I was up snowboarding back on 3 Jan and had a
similar experience with many flocks totaling hundreds of finches, though the
species composition was somewhat different.

Here's what I was able to identify that day with conservative estimates of
numbers. There were quite a few distant flocks of finches that I didn't
identify.

GC Kinglet - 1
RB Nuthatch - 1
Gray Jay - 5
Steller's Jay - 2
Common Raven - 5
GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH - 20 flew low over the parking lot while eating
lunch, in loose association with Purple Finches.
Purple Finch - 100+ (!), quite a few flocks of 20-50 birds
Red Crossbill - one pure flock of 20
Pine Siskin - 100, I was surprised not to see more
Evening Grosbeak - 350+ (!) several large flocks of 80-120 birds plus a few
smaller flocks

Good birding,
Ryan Merrill
Kirkland, WA

Taking advantage of today's gorgeous weather, I snowshoed up to Skyline Lake
> above Stevens Pass. There were huge numbers of finches in the area,
> probably due to the bumper cone crop on several different conifer species.
> Among the large numbers of Siskins and Red Crossbills, I saw two
> WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS (one adult male and one female/juvenile type), one
> COMMON REDPOLL, and one adult male CASSIN'S FINCH. I also heard a few more
> Redpolls mixed in with the Siskin flocks, and heard a variety of calls from
> flyover finch flocks that I wasn't totally comfortable IDing. I suspect
> there were a few more White-winged Crossbills in the vicinity.
> Good birding, Matt Dufort Seattle, WA
>