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
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,
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,
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
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
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,
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 -
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
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