Just went out to fill platform feeder & heard a familiar chattering call. I learned, long ago, to always have my binocs with me. And, in a Russian Olive was the Steller’s Jay. I’ve yet to see it come into the feeder, in spite of my best attempts by following advice here. Won’t come in for peanuts, sunflower seeds or suet.
But, it was rapidly downing Russian Olive fruits! Have a bumper crop this year, so perhaps that’s the reason it has stuck around.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a flock this large. The birds were in the road but mostly on the snow covered field on the south side of Melmont. They were moving around quite a bit and we couldn’t find anything other than the horned larks.
We’ve got lots of siskens, almost as many as gold finches, and a few house finches. I recall we get nuthatches in late winter. Rosy finches only stuck around for less than an hour.
What is the seedcop like in the pines and firs ? These seedeaters’ numbers fluctuate with seed availability in Valley County I’ve noticed, and we have more evidence of that in their numbers on our Christmas bird counts.
Anyone in eastern Idaho seeing RB Nuthatches? We normally have lots of them but have recently noticed that we’re not seeing any (Also, little to no house finches or pine siskins, fwiw). Wondering what, if anything, might be going on. We still have many Stellars Jays, lots of chickadees, goldfinches and evening grosbeaks. Maybe just the normal fluctuation that occurs year to year?
I got distracted and didn’t finish my thought. There are a few
around east Idaho.
On 1/27/25 04:42PM, Cliff Weisse wrote:
FWIW, we saw one Rough-legged and one Ferruginous Hawk on the
Rexburg bench in Madison County today so there are at least a
few around.
Cliff
On 1/27/25 01:14PM, lcarrigan_55 via
groups.io wrote:
Thanks for info from both of you, Bill & Tim! Wow,
wonder what’s kept the Rough-leggeds not that far away, just
to the NE? Good food supply I suppose. Interesting. Will be
watching for Rosy Finches, too! Had an irruption one year of
literally, thousands! Would go thru a 50 lb bag of sunflower
seeds in 3-4 days. That was 40 yrs ago though.
