The last two days I’ve had some old friends come to visit – Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls. Since I first got to know these birds when I was living out west, that’s kind of how I think of them, but a quick check of the field guide shows that they are indeed found across almost the entire continent. That got me to looking at some of my other favorite western winter birds. Both the Red- and the White-winged Crossbills, as well as the Evening Grosbeak look to be generally a bit further north, but it’s not completely out of the question to see them here, I suppose. It doesn’t look good for the Gray-crowned Rosy finches, though. To see them here would be a rare, call-the-bird-hotline event!
I tried to snap a few shots of the Redpolls through my window this morning, but it’s so dark and snowy that mostly what I got was reflection, but I found a perfect shot of a male at a website called 50birds.com – which I will definitely explore more later on. There are so many birds I grew to know and love in the mountain years, ravens, magpies, mountain chickadees, rufous hummingbirds… But then again, I longed for cardinals and red-bellied woodpeckers when I was there, so I guess it all evens out.
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13 comments:
Good Morning Deb, It's amazing how all of us in different areas of the country enjoy different birds. I've never heard of Redpolls. Guess they are a 'northern' bird. The little guy to the left looks like a House Finch to me (or maybe a Purple Finch)--but who knows since I'm new to this birding myself.
Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Betsy
I would love to get those northern birds at my feeder. I have the siskins but not the red polls. I am keeping my eyes open for them though.
Enjoy your birds!
The birds of home are dear, aren't they? No matter how long you live in a new place, the birds always seem surprising.
Redpolls are so tiny in comparison with the other birds. My Mom used to have so many but now only a few.
I only see pine siskins in mixed flocks. once (and only once) our yard was covered with them. It was a while back, but I think they traveled with red wings and maybe starlings (?)
never saw a redpoll that I am aware of.
i need to pay more attention to our birds out here in so. utah. we're on a migration route for geese and other larger birds going south or north depending on the weather. we even have human residents we call snow birds as they come to live here in our retirement community only when it snows where they live the rest of the year. we are year rounders...enjoying warm winters and sizzling summers-hey that sounds like a poem.
We get a huge variety of birds here that I had never seen before, but have to admit that I'm terribly ignorant about birds, although I do love them. Guess I'm going to have to spend more time finding out about our winged friends in this area. Always love your shots of your visitors!
Thanks for the 50 birds link. That looks like fun.
We have had an influx of Pine Siskins over the past couple of days but I'm sill hoping (longing) for my first Redpolls at our feeders this year. The little Siskins appear to be such shy, wallflower sort of birds, but we have had a few males and some have been spreading their wings to display quite a surprising yellow pattern underneath.
Thank you for your comment about my Eagle today. We decided we should use up some MacDonald breakfast coupons we had, and so we had gone birding after that. The eagle was a lucky sighting.
Love your mention of bird species east vs. west in your post.
Hey there!
Thank you for your sweet comment! You are Awesome!!! I've kind of been MIA lately. Christmas, cameras, kids, etc... all just excuses, I know, since everyone else had all of this and more. I guess I've felt a bit overwhelmed with it all, and so now, that's the end of my sob story and things are getting back to normal, yehhh!
I really enjoyed reading about your birds! I'm very impressed with how much you know! Wow!!!
Hugs!!
These are great. I need to learn a bit more about these critters. I was out today before the snow, and all I could here was the magic of birds. It was amazing. Might as well make the introduction. Thanks for flagging that site.
cutey-kins! Aloha
Window shots frustrate me, too.
I'm enjoying siskins at our feeders for the first time ever!
Another change that comes our way, even when we do nothing differently!
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