Category Archives: Listserv Posts

Redpolls at Montour

Hi everyone,
Yesterday late afternoon, Amy & I watched at least a hundred Common Redpolls at Montour.
eBird flagged that many, apparently 50 would not have been flagged. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a camera. 
Has anyone else seen this many? It has been quite a winter for them!
The birds were all together, moving around the bushes along the Old Emmett highway, just to the west of the campground. 
At first, we thought there were Pine Siskins mixed in, but as far as we could tell, they were all Redpolls. 
They were vocalizing as they flew between the bushes, a v distinctive hard metallic & rapid twittering.
A lifer for me (in the UK, the redpolls there are called Lesser Redpolls (Acanthis cabaret), which are a little
smaller & browner). I gather there are discussions going on about making all redpolls a single species. 
I realize that these days DNA profiles are the oveiriding factor in Taxonomy, but to my mind, that runs counter to evolution. 
John Shortis     

   

Re: GEAS winter bird challenge

All

This is my first post on this group, but thank you for the congratulations about the GEAS bird challenge.

The photo category was based on most species photographed, not quality of the shots. Many of the pictures I took were enough to capture a species identification, but they were not necessarily worthy of National Geographic. However, I did manage to get a few good photos during this month. Hope you enjoy a few of them:

Kent


Ferruginous Hawk 


Savannah Sparrow 


Bald Eagle


Common Redpoll


Rough-legged Hawk


Downy Woodpecker 


American Kestrel 


Mountain Chickadee 


Northern Shrike


Red-breasted Sapsucker 


Say’s Phoebe 


Common Loon


Short-eared Owl