Fave Winter Resident

My favorite winter resident arrived today, Townsend’s Solitaire. We have a good number of Rocky Mountain juniper on our place & the solitaire is a winter altitudinal migrant, appearing & staking out their favorite trees for the season. Their main competitor is the American Robin for best trees loaded with juniper berries. Some of the trees have a bumper crop this season & the “squabbles” between Solitaire & Robin have already started! 

The RB Nuthatches are still busy gathering sunflower seeds from the feeder. Appears the YR Warblers & RC Kinglets have moved on through. Weather’s due for a change to winter-like conditions starting Sunday. 

Brian Carrigan
Blackfoot