Hello, tweets.

During the last few very cold days, we have had warblers at our suet almost continually. One Orange-crowned, one Yellow-rumped and two Townsend's, and they usually chase one another when they overlap in visits. Right now there are two Yellow-rumped, and they are chasing constantly all over the yard, as intense an interaction as I ever see with hummingbirds. I can just imagine one of them chirping MY SUET constantly. But what a waste of energy, when there are two suet feeders. Same with the hummingbirds--plenty of food for all, yet they defend a feeder like it is the last bit of nectar in the universe.

The yard has been full of birds since the cold weather started. Two Fox Sparrows instead of the usual one; two Varied Thrushes, back after an absence of several weeks. More Song Sparrows (up to four at once) than we usually see, and uncountable numbers of juncos (yet a "Cassiar's that was here during the early winter seems to be absent now). A Golden-crowned that was present for a few weeks also seems missing in action. Several flickers and a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers every day, but no Downies for quite a while now, and the 1-2 Hairies we had last fall are long gone.

Waxing and waning seems the best description of birds at a given location, although both species of chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Bushtits and Bewick's Wrens seem to have stayed constant through the winter.

Day before yesterday it was even too cold for squirrels; only one visited (often there are 5-6) at the warmest part of the day.

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



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