Betsy and All-- I banded great numbers of goldfinches, redpolls, and siskins for almost 30 years in South Dakota. At first it appeared that goldfinches were replaced by siskins, which in turn were replaced by redpolls--depending on the winter. As time passed, however, I came to agree with Betsy Beneke. I concluded that these winter finch cycles are random and unpredictable. Some winters I banded numbers of all three species. This winter, here in Minnesota, we have many siskins and redpolls but very few goldfinches.
dan On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 7:23 AM, Betsy Beneke <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm still feeding anywhere from 50 to 125 common redpo > Erika, and all, > > I'm still feeding anywhere from 50 to 125 common redpolls at my house east > of St. Cloud every day. No pine siskins or goldfinches all winter. > > At Sherburne Refuge, I've had scattered goldfinches all winter - no > regulars - there are 2-6 birds one or two days a week. No siskins. Still > seeing a couple of large flocks of redpolls on the east side of the refuge, > but I haven't had a single one at my bird feeder at HQ all winter. Guess > they just never found me. > > I've found in my many years of feeding birds in MN that goldfinches and > pine siskins are always roaming, you can never count on them from one year > or even season to the next. > > Betsy Beneke > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > -- Dan or Erika Tallman Northfield, Minnesota [email protected] http://sites.google.com/site/tallmanorum http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com http://picasaweb.google.com/danerika The White Album: Portraits of Minnesota Birds<http://www.blurb.com/b/3992062-the-white-album-portraits-of-minnesota-birds-dan-t> Two Years Among the Odonates <http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3467428> ".... the best shod travel with wet feet...Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes ....”—H. D. Thoreau; "Back off, man. I'm a scientist."—Dr. Peter Venkman ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
