The Siskins: Pine Siskins aren't really the pits, except for one or two. Last week Cobirds generated quite a list of people seeing big flocks of siskins. Those flocks that we attract to our feeders in Franktown often include a couple of sick ones. Conventional advice tells us to take in the feeders, clean them with clorox, and don't feed for a couple of weeks because bird diseases spread among birds from their proximity to each other. Stopping putting out feeders presumably disperses the flocks so that the disease may not proliferate.
Karen Metz noticed sick siskins last week, and she quit putting out her seed feeders. We too noticed this, and we too quit putting them out. We have a twist though -- the siskins (and goldfinches) tended to come in the morning; therefore we put out the cylinder seed and thistle feeders at lunchtim. Few of either species show up now, so that we hope we've dispersed the flock a little bit. * * * The Pits: Today Urling inspected the Walker and McClain Pits (on opposite sides of Colo. 86 just west of Franktown) and found both had mostly open water. Walker had 6 Gadwalls, 2 Mallards, 26 Redheads, and 10 Common Goldeneyes. McClain boasted 8 Mallards and 50 Canada geese. (The reservoir at Parker Main and Cherry Creek likewise opened up, totally, this week, but I saw only a bunch of gulls flying against the sun and that I didn't ID.) Urling and Hugh Kingery Franktown --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
