Hi Tweeters,

It sounds like many of you on the west side have been experiencing the big
Pine Siskin flight over the last month or so. It's certainly been
entertaining. I've been heading up to Larch Mountain in my home county as
much as time will allow. I'm seeing about 500-800 siskin blasting through
each day. Today, the Pine Siskin number was lower but the Red Crossbill
number has started to go way up. My previous high for the last ten years
or so has been 64 which I had on Monday. Today's count was 153!!! That
was thrilling to see but that was eclipsed when I heard a double noted call
that sounded vaguely familiar. Several minutes of searching and I finally
located the bird - a female type PINE GROSBEAK!!! This is not only the
first one I've ever seen in Clark County, I think its the first one I've
ever seen in Washington!

eBird report: https://ebird.org/checklist/S75530249

The actual site is about 1.5 miles west of the hotspot dot.

I also had a pair of flyby Wood Ducks and a Common Loon which were both new
site birds (elevation here is about 2000 feet). Species list for this
location is now 114.

Anybody else seeing an incursion of northern finches other than siskins?
It would be interesting to figure out if this is more of a local movement
or whether the same numbers of northern finches are moving south much
further north. Could White-winged Crossbills be coming soon?

At this same location on Monday, I had 33 raptors moving through:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S75452560

Keep your eyes and ears skyward.

Jim
--
Jim Danzenbaker
Battle Ground, WA
360-702-9395
jdanzenbaker at gmail.com
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