[mou-net] Finches, Polk County
In my yard in western Polk County (East Grand Forks) today, I had my first-of-the-season lone Common Redpoll in the bird bath and just over 20 Pine Siskins at the feeders. Later, a Merlin was being chased through the yard by a Sharp-shinned Hawk. There was a Northern Shrike down by the Red Lake River this afternoon in East Grand Forks. Up near Agassiz Valley, SE of Warren, MN, hundreds (probably 1000+) Sandhill Cranes gathering in the corn fields. Also my first Rough-legged Hawk of the season. Several Bald Eagles and Black-billed Magpies were feeding on a carcass. Sandy Aubol Polk County
Re: [mou-net] Finches
We have about six to twelve Goldfinches regularly coming to the sunflower feeders, along with about the same number of House Finches. Pine Siskins come in for short periods of time, but I can often hear them in the tree tops. It has seemed like only two to four were around most of the winter, but numbers appear to be higher now with about six at the bird bath and feeder yesterday at a time. Greater numbers of finches are in the treetops and may be coming to neighboring feeders. Redpolls have enjoyed my neighbor's feeder much more than mine. Nobody has interest in my thistle seed. On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM, danerika daner...@gmail.com wrote: 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 birderbe...@yahoo.com 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 daner...@gmail.com 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 -- Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
Re: [mou-net] Finches
I find these regional and local movements of finches fascinating. The hard part is that the tools we have to track those movements don't work well for these species. To figure out what they're really doing, we need to be able to follow individual birds, and that's nearly impossible for small, nomadic bids. Satellite transmitters are too big for most of the finches, and these new geolocators that are illuminating lots of bird movements require recapturing the birds to get the data. We could track them with radio transmitters, but those have limited range. Banding recoveries are probably our best bet, but they're rare enough that we don't get a very complete picture. So it may be a while before we get a thorough understanding of finch movements. Dan, did you ever recapture birds from previous years? I'm really curious how often birds come back to the same wintering areas. We know that many finches move around based on regional availability of food, to the point that there's an annual forecast of those movements for the northeast (http://1birds.com/winter-finch-forecast-for-2012-2013.htm). I think this food-based nomadic movement is very true for siskins and redpolls, and might be true on a smaller scale for goldfinches. Several years ago, siskins completely disappeared from Washington state for close to a year. People started worrying that there had been a big die-off. Then, they reappeared as mysteriously as they'd gone, and I'm not sure if anyone knows where they went during that time. As a final note, there are a ton of bird species in Australia that wander around from season to season and year to year, depending on where water and food are available. There are a few groups of birds that we know do that in North America (owls, finches), but I wonder how much of it occurs with other species (diurnal raptors, for example). So much we still have to learn. Matt Dufort Minneapolis On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 2:15 PM, Steve Weston swest...@comcast.net wrote: We have about six to twelve Goldfinches regularly coming to the sunflower feeders, along with about the same number of House Finches. Pine Siskins come in for short periods of time, but I can often hear them in the tree tops. It has seemed like only two to four were around most of the winter, but numbers appear to be higher now with about six at the bird bath and feeder yesterday at a time. Greater numbers of finches are in the treetops and may be coming to neighboring feeders. Redpolls have enjoyed my neighbor's feeder much more than mine. Nobody has interest in my thistle seed. On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM, danerika daner...@gmail.com wrote: 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 birderbe...@yahoo.com 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 daner...@gmail.com 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 -- Steve Weston On Quigley
Re: [mou-net] Finches
Matt et al.-- I do not recall ever recapturing a siskin or a redpoll in a subsequent year from banding. None of my redpolls were ever found elsewhere, although I am aware of a South Dakota-banded redpoll being recovered in Connecticut. I have had South Dakota siskins recaptured in California and Maryland. In South Dakota, I once caught someone else's goldfinch banded in southeastern Colorado. One of my Minnesota goldfinches was recovered in west-central Saskatchewan. I am pretty sure I have recovered goldfinches banded locally after a year, but I would have to check on that. dan On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Matt Dufort zeledo...@gmail.com wrote: I find these regional and local movements of finches fascinating. The hard part is that the tools we have to track those movements don't work well for these species. To figure out what they're really doing, we need to be able to follow individual birds, and that's nearly impossible for small, nomadic bids. Satellite transmitters are too big for most of the finches, and these new geolocators that are illuminating lots of bird movements require recapturing the birds to get the data. We could track them with radio transmitters, but those have limited range. Banding recoveries are probably our best bet, but they're rare enough that we don't get a very complete picture. So it may be a while before we get a thorough understanding of finch movements. Dan, did you ever recapture birds from previous years? I'm really curious how often birds come back to the same wintering areas. We know that many finches move around based on regional availability of food, to the point that there's an annual forecast of those movements for the northeast ( http://1birds.com/winter-finch-forecast-for-2012-2013.htm). I think this food-based nomadic movement is very true for siskins and redpolls, and might be true on a smaller scale for goldfinches. Several years ago, siskins completely disappeared from Washington state for close to a year. People started worrying that there had been a big die-off. Then, they reappeared as mysteriously as they'd gone, and I'm not sure if anyone knows where they went during that time. As a final note, there are a ton of bird species in Australia that wander around from season to season and year to year, depending on where water and food are available. There are a few groups of birds that we know do that in North America (owls, finches), but I wonder how much of it occurs with other species (diurnal raptors, for example). So much we still have to learn. Matt Dufort Minneapolis On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 2:15 PM, Steve Weston swest...@comcast.net wrote: We have about six to twelve Goldfinches regularly coming to the sunflower feeders, along with about the same number of House Finches. Pine Siskins come in for short periods of time, but I can often hear them in the tree tops. It has seemed like only two to four were around most of the winter, but numbers appear to be higher now with about six at the bird bath and feeder yesterday at a time. Greater numbers of finches are in the treetops and may be coming to neighboring feeders. Redpolls have enjoyed my neighbor's feeder much more than mine. Nobody has interest in my thistle seed. On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM, danerika daner...@gmail.com wrote: 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 birderbe...@yahoo.com 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
Re: [mou-net] Finches
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 birderbe...@yahoo.com 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 daner...@gmail.com http://sites.google.com/site/tallmanorum http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com http://picasaweb.google.com/danerika The White Album: Portraits of Minnesota Birdshttp://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
Re: [mou-net] finches (Wayzata, Hennepin County)
We had only a few redpolls early in the winter season here. However, goldfinch and Siskin have been numerous throughout the season. They empty the hulled sunflower feeders with gusto, but have no interest in the thistle seeds. During the summer and fall the goldfinch feast on coneflower, Black-eyed Susan and knautia flower heads in the garden. Jan Wicklund Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] Finches
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
[mou-net] Finches more
This has been the season of the finches! In the last ten days I have seen most of the finches. Goldfinches have been found everywhere, although in reduced numbers. Redpolls have also been most everywhere from Christmas Day in Sax-Zim to most of my Christmas Bird Counts to my own feeders here in Eagan (yesterday). We found Hoaries on the Pine Co. count. Pine Siskins, just like Redpolls, although with no large groups. They were here yesterday and today. Purple Finches were found in Wacouta during the Redwing CBC and near Hastings during that CBC. House Finches, not as plentiful as in the past, but I have found them most of the CBC's. They are reliably hogging my feeders. Pine Grosbeaks were found at Sax/Zim and Pine County CBC. Others found them at the Cedar Creek Bog CBC. White-wing Crossbills I found in Woodbury, during the Afton CBC. Last night we had two large bucks wander past the house. One was a ten point buck. The other I could count through the snow and reduced visibitlity. A new mammal for the yard list: Meadow Vole under the feeder. I did not expect it in this forest habitat. Six Christmas Bird Counts done (Bloomington, Cedar Creek Bog, Pine Co., Hastings, Redwing, Afton). Lots of good birds! On the Afton Count we had WW Crossbills and Siskins about a block apart. In Redwing we had 14 species of waterfowl and flocks of Bald Eagles, 483 in total and we did not count any of the eagles that were flying over the river. Saturday I will do one of my favorites: Wabasha. Birds I have found in the past on the count: Snowy Owl, Varied Thrush (twice!), Long-eared Owl, Saw-whet Owl. If you are not doing a CBC, you are missing some great birds. Good birding! -- Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
