Sure not much to report lately. Mainly, Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swans coming over daily, from winter wheat fields to the river. And, moose. See 2-3 daily on place, from yearling calf to cows to bulls, both young to a couple big, mature ones.
This AM, looked out across winter wheat field & saw, what I thought was a Raven with 2 Pheasant roosters. Binocs showed a completely black RN Pheasant rooster. First I’ve ever seen.
Having bemoaned our lack of birds, we woke up to double the usual number of lesser goldfinches and juncos. Around noon a flock of about 100 robins came into the neighborhood
and were followed by about 50 cedar waxwings. Next up was a large flock of starlings, who tried to find out how many of them could land on our bird bath at one time (about a dozen is the correct answer). Two yellow rump warblers appeared with the starlings
(a first for our yard). The final group of the day was a flock of two to three dozen magpies. By 3 PM all the birds were gone, not so much as a junco remained. I’m guessing the next weather front is pushing them, or maybe it was our neighborhood’s turn on
their rotation schedule.
In Valley County, McCall area, there is a very good seed crop in the ponderosas, so my feeders lack customers. Birds are out there but getting natural foods.
So I took a hike yesterday around the house. Within a mile we saw flocks of goldfinches, juncos, pine siskins and chickadees. They’re out there, just not at the feeders. That’s a good thing.
Same here (foothills east of Pocatello). There was an abundance of seeds on the maples, the fir trees are loaded with cones, we’ve had very mild temps and snow cover is nil. I often hike in the forests around here and the birds are out there, hard to say if the numbers are down or if they’re just more dispersed. I have noticed more red crossbills than years past.
Wow! I didn’t realize how lucky I am. I’ve got Juncos out the wazoo in my yard, and frequent visits from Song Sparrows, House Finches and M. Doves. Plus, when they all disappear, I can usually be sure that Alice, our resident Cooper’s Hawk, is around.
Plus the Boise Greenbelt has been great of late and my daily totals have exceeded 30 birds. Today’s raptors included a GH Owl, RT Hawk, and A Kestrel.
We are in the West Bench of Boise, and our bird counts have been way down since early spring of this year. Rough guess is that we are getting no more than 25% of the numbers we are used to. Early this year we figured some of that was due to the bird flu going around. It seemed to hit the American Goldfinches the hardest and we took down the feeders for about 5 weeks. We also had a couple of sharp shinned hawks visiting regularly, which probably got us a down grade on Google feeder reviews. Hummingbird numbers were way down, as well. They showed up at our house at least a full month later than usual and in smaller numbers. We have seen a couple of days with larger flocks coming in, but mostly we are still well below average. I’m wondering if our warm winter is reducing demand, as well. The only upside is that we have saved some serious money on seed, but I’d rather be buying seed.
I’ve had very little activity at my feeders here in New Meadows the past few weeks. Several other folks in the area have told me they are seeing very few birds at their feeders.
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