Seeing these posts on birds in people's yards, I thought it was worth adding more, as I think now is the time to see just what birds you have around your yard. We live in a wooded part of northeast Seattle above the Thornton Creek ravine. We have three glass-fronted seed feeders, two tube feeders, two suet cages, one tree branch with depressions for bark butter, and four hummingbird feeders. And we are sprinkling seeds everywhere, including the window ledge outside my office, which gets quite a variety of species.

We knew we had Townsend's Warblers, but now we know for sure we have at least three, a male and two females that we've seen at the same time. Maybe more? And an (Audubon's) Yellow-rumped Warbler that has little tiffs with the Townsend's over the suet. At least two Bewick's Wrens, sometimes part of the fray.

Three White-throated Sparrows for sure, including a tan-striped.

At least 3 or 4 Song Sparrows, same with Spotted Towhees. We had a Fox Sparrow before the snow, but we haven't seen it since.

An innumerable collection of Dark-eyed Juncos, certainly 25+, including one fine male Slate-colored. Occasionally 15 or so Bushtits come by and hog the suet feeders for a short while. Up to six Pine Siskins but only intermittently, and we haven't seen one snatch a seed out of anyone else's bill.

At least three Anna's Hummingbirds, a male feisty as ever and chasing the other two around, but sometimes he allows one to feed on the next feeder over. A former mate? We are swapping hummer feeders inside and out during the day, also suet, which can freeze at these temperatures.

At least three Northern Flickers seen at once repeatedly and one Downy Woodpecker. At least two Steller's Jays. One or more Red-breasted Nuthatches, and both Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees coming and going that can't be counted. The Chestnut-backed favor suet, while the Black-capped favor seeds, but there is overlap.

I've seen a male Varied Thrush and a male American Robin, both here apparently for the last berries of the season.

We had an even dozen Band-tailed Pigeons before the snow, haven't seen them since either.

Fortunately no hawks or cats so far.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle


> On Dec 26, 2021, at 8:22 PM, mary hrudkaj <mch1096 at hotmail.com> wrote:

>

> Several years ago I had an over wintering flock of over 200 pine siskens here. I too have watched them harass larger birds (in this case red crossbills) to make them drop seed. In this case it was sunflower seeds in the hull. Several siskens caught on quick and one got to the point of actually stealing opened seed from the crossbill's beak. Timing had to be crucial having to wait until the sunflower seed was mostly or fully opened so the sisken didn't have to do any work to get food other than harassing the crossbills.

>

> Birds never cease to amaze me. They even have me well trained to shovel the deck and ground feeding area several times during our 8 inch snowfall today.

>

> Mary Hrudkaj

> Belfair/Tahuya


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