Rick:
Not sure why they are so scarce here (southern PG County) in winter. They are abundant throughout the rest of the year, but I don't recall ever seeing one in our yard in winter. I ordinarily use seeing one in breeding plumage as a bench mark for a fos bird, since the rare few I have seen in winter (elsewhere) were always in winter plumage. The fos CHSPs here have ALWAYS been in breeding plumage, and normally it is a single bird, seen feeding alone at the feeder (i.e., avoids other birds). It normally is a good find to see one here (Jug Bay) on the Christmas count, or one of the other local winter counts!
Cheers-
Jeff Shenot
> That strikes me as weird. We have them here all winter, albeit in low numbers. Recently the flocks have grown to 30+ birds, many with full orange caps in breeding plumage. I don't know whether it is unusual for us to have them here in winter (they breed in our yard as well) or unusual for you not to have them?
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> We live in southern Carroll County.
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> Rick Sussman
> Woodbine,MD
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