Thanks for the great info, Bob.

It seems evident that Purple Finches are only present at your site in
the winter. Although 5-10 individuals isn't a large number, it might
be what would be expected for an uncommon winter visitor. I guess
there is no way to distinguish migrants from the north from migrants
from uphill.

The variation in House Finch numbers is even more interesting. I
wonder why the very high peak in the fall, more than could be
accounted for by the number of pairs that are seemingly present early
in the breeding season. On the other hand, if you detected mostly
males in May and June, and there were as many as 10 males present,
that might account for as many as 40 adults and juveniles in
September. There is always a lot of mortality of young birds, which
might explain the sharp decline again into the winter, but I wonder
if there might also be local movements. I think of House Finches as
nonmigratory and not occurring very far up into the mountains. And I
might have predicted more mortality in the winter than in the fall.

Thanks again. Presenting information of this sort graphically can't
be beat! How about publishing the results of all those counts or at
least putting the graphs on a web site? How do other common resident
birds such as Bewick's Wrens, Spotted Towhees, and Black-capped
Chickadees (for all of which there should be few or no migrants)
compare?

Michael Hobbs, are you able to show us the same info for Marymoor?

Dennis


On Mar 15, 2008, at 3:52 PM, Bob and Barb Boekelheide wrote:

> Hello, Dennis and all,
>
> On the Dungeness River Audubon Center's Wednesday morning bird
> walks in Sequim, for which we have good data for 2002 - 2007,
> Purple Finches show an annual cycle like you suggest. Few if any
> birds are present during the breeding season (April - August),
> birds appear in small flocks through the fall, they peak in
> December and early January, then quickly decline through February
> and March prior to the next breeding season. Very much like you'd
> expect for a migratory species here for the winter. Let me know if
> the graph below comes through for you - if not, I can send it some
> other way.
>
> Unfortunately we're not sure where these wintering PUFIs go to
> breed. For all I know, it could be somewhere else around Sequim as
> well as British Columbia, since PUFIs are local breeders in our
> area. Singing PUFIs are relatively common in the fragmented forests
> of the Olympic foothills above Sequim through April - May, and I
> usually get a few on my breeding bird survey here in mid-June.
> Even though PUFIs sing during March and April at the Dungeness Rec
> Area, I don't know whether they nest there, as I've never found
> nests or fledglings. Maybe they're just sounding off before flying
> away over the Strait.
>
> With the finch invasion this winter, Purple Finches have
> occasionally outnumbered House Finches on our bird walks, so maybe
> this is the year PUFIs stick around to nest in some numbers. Lots
> of PUFI song happening right now. In the last couple weeks we've
> also seen both crossbills and siskins carrying nesting material in
> trees by the Dungeness River, so we'll see what happens.
>
> Best,
> Bob Boekelheide
> Sequim

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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