Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 10:07:01 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Winter Finches A-Wing MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi all -- This message was posted by Blake Maybank on BirdChat: " It is always difficult to extrapolate wider bird movements from a local perspective, but the following observation may be of interest to those hoping for a southern movement of northern winter finches. On the weekend of Oct. 27-28, four of us were on Seal Island, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, (43 deg 25 min N., 66 deg W). Winds were from the NW and N, and there was a modest movement of finches, but a wide variety of species represented. Totals were: 2 Purple Finch 20 Red Crossbill 155 White-winged Crossbill 15 Common Redpoll 55 Pine Siskin 40 American Goldfinch 15 Evening Grosbeak So something may indeed be afoot (or awing)." I am reminded that the winter of the huge Redpoll invasion -- which resulted in an (estimated) 1000+ Redpolls at Dave Czaplak's and Mary Ann Todd's feeders -- Barry and I went up to Toronto in early November to chase the Varigated Flycatcher. The next day we visited a lake-side hawk-watch, where we saw a fair number of hawks, but nothing out of the ordinary. What WAS out of the ordinary were the 100s (in the hour we were at the hawk-watch, an estimated 800-900) of Redpolls which were leaving the Canadian shore and winging their way south to the USA side of the lake. The hawk-watchers said this had been going on for days. (We swore that at least one flock were carrying a sign --"this way to Czaplak's feeders and FREE EATS") Will we see a repeat this year? Cheers, Gail Mackiernan Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================