Subject: [Tweeters] Feeder frequent flyers, Wounded windblowns,
Date: Dec 17 15:09:33 2012
From: Rob Conway - robin_birder at hotmail.com



Oboltweets,

My feathered friends are going through pounds of black sunflower and suet daily and now I have enough ground/seed feeders to be going through a pound or so of a good millet, sorghum and chile mix every day. The finch flocks are huge, noisy and non-stop. I have Pine Siskins (showing no signs of salmonilla) in flocks of 100 or more every hour. I am also seeing large numbers of American Goldfinch, Purple finch, and House Finch. On Saturday I had 25 Evening Grosbeak. I also had a red finch that I observed on and off for an hour and with its unnotched tail, thin pointed bill, and a crest with perfect coloring that I'm over 90% sure is a Cassin's, I did have a single easily identifiable Common Redpoll yesterday in a brief snow shower. On Friday I had large numbers of Red Crossbills move through the treetops, but none of the White-winged that have been showing up in other parts of Washington. Larege numbers of Dark-eyed Juncos (and at least 2 slate colored), Fox and Song Sparrows raid the seed feeders and Moruning doves come in daily at dawn and dusk - their call is one of my favorites.

I have 3 suet feeders out that are daily assaulted by Red Shafter Flickers, Downy and Hairy woodpeckers, and mesmerizing flocks of up to 70 bushtits. The bushtits will actually land on me if I stand near the feeders. Red Breasted Nuthatches visit every minute or so. Lots of Black Capped Chickadees, a few Chestnut Backed and on 3 occasions a Mounting Chickadee come in to snatch morsels. On the ground I have at leas 5 winter (Pacific) wrens on my lot, a healthy number of Varied Thrush, Steller's and Scrub Jays, and always unidentified skulkers in the hedges - and a Brown Creeper or two always circling the larger evergreen trunks.

Last nights winds brought down the most rotten (and smallest) of the 5 rotting fir/hemlocks. The 10" diameter tree was filled with Chickadee and Nuthatch sized holes. It snapped off about 8 feet above the ground and the 30 or so feet that fell made a not so gracefull landing in my small pond at the top of a garden waterfall, across the hedge and up the next hill. I investigated just for a minute or two and found that a minimum of 4 small bats and a Red Breasted Nuthatch were crushed in the fall. I will take the tree and distribute it around the garden to add to the duff and limbfall layer that host many insects, amphibians and small mammals. I did find what I think is a sharptail snake under a rock I was moving last weekend and I be thrilled if other reptiles showed up.

I feel I've found a special place for attracting and observing birds and that has truly added to my enjoyment of life. I'm trying to find a CBC or two to participate in as I have Dec 20 through January 7 off from work - For some reason I don't see any Vancouver / Ridgefield or other close by counts listed - please alert me off-list if you can point me to a complete source.
Rob

Rob Conway
Camas, WA
45.58?N 122.44?W - elevation 310 ft.
robin_birder at hotmail.com