I've had a flock of around 40 redpolls at our feeders for the last week, but this morning was different. I glanced out after light and there were 300+ redpolls at and below the feeders. The birds brought to mind an active bee hive in mid-summer, very cool. Searching through the flock, I found a single bird which was frosty compared with the other 299+ birds with a clean rump and a noticeably shorter bill, I never got a good look at the under tail but from what we could see, there didn't appear to be much or any streaking, which we could see on other birds. While there is certainly a gradation between Common and Hoary, this bird fell on the Hoary side of things A Yard Lifer for me!!!
With the influx of Redpolls continuing to mount, I'd encourage everyone to enter their observations into eBird. I wonder how many flocks/birds there are in the region Cheers and look over those flocks, Jeff -- Jeff Gerbracht Lead Application Developer Neotropical Birds, Breeding Bird Atlas, eBird Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2117 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --