Interesting note about your collared doves, Steve.
They’re still increasing in number in our hood, west Boise.
2600 ft elevation here…
Larry

From: “Steve Kahl Steve_Kahl@fws.gov [ible]”
To: “IBLE”
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2019 9:29:32 AM
Subject: [IBLE] Subtle changes- Pocatello

The influx of pine siskins reported in the Blackfoot area has been
occurring around Pocatello the past couple weeks. I had been seeing
6-12 siskins at my feeders all winter. Now there are usually 60-80,
with a high count of 130!

I started out the winter with a song sparrow, spotted towhee and a
Harris’s sparrow visiting my feeders but they petered out by mid
January. Although I have some good brush on the slope behind my yard.
I figured the birds left because the brush wasn’t thick enough for the
coldest parts of winter and there wasn’t good enough water for them…
Lo and behold all three were beneath my feeders at the same time this
morning. The Harris’s sparrow (an immature) had quite a bit more black
on its face than the last time I saw it.

Paramyxovirus seems to have swept through the Eurasian collared doves
in my neighborhood. The neighbor down the street used to strew buckets
of mixed seed on the ground for them. Consequently, during my backyard
bird counts I would often count 30-50 collared doves in the big
cottonwoods near their yard. I thought it not a good sign when I
started seeing birds that acted more lethargic. Now I only see 1 or 2
collared doves at most.

Sent from my iPhone