Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 16:54:53 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: C COMEAU Subject: Re: Finches in Kent [+PG] County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reading comments about the abundance or decline of House Finches prompted me to search my Avisys records to see how the number of House Finches in my back yard compared to numbers of House Sparrows over the past 30 years. I remember thinking for a while that the finch was going to largely displace the sparrow, but it didn't happen. Since 1972 I have lived in Calverton/Beltsville. House Finches appeared in my back yard in the late1970s, but in very small numbers compared to House Sparrows. The ratio of House Finch to House Sparrow sightings (numbers of birds recorded for the year) reached 0.5 in 1981 and 1.6 in 1983. From 1984 through 2000, the ratio ranged mostly from 0.8 to 1.2 (an average of about 1.0) with the exception of 1996 (1.6 again). For 2001 to the present, the ratio has been consistently about 0.7. I used the ratio between the 2 species instead of absolute numbers to minimize the effect of variations in the level of effort of my own observations. This very unscientific sample from my yard may not be significant, but it does appear to show a consistent drop in the number of House Finches compared to House Sparrow numbers in the current century (0.7) compared to the last 20 years of the previous century (1.0). Cliff Comeau cliff.comeau@att.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Noyes" To: Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 8:43 PM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Finches in Kent [+PG] County > RE house finches. > I live in an apartment complex in Calverton, PG County and, also, have noticed an absence of House Finches at my feeder(s) in the past year. I used to get almost equal amounts of finches and house sparrows and now only occasionally see 1 pair of house finches coming irregularly. Overall, birding throughout MD and DE, I have not seen very many house finches. Makes one wonder!! > > > Meghan Tice wrote: > Perhaps the surviving House Finches have all moved to Glenn Dale (?); I've got about a dozen pairs visiting daily. Have heard from others about their disappearance and that it may be the result of an avian conjunctivitis... > > Do have flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles feeding on gumball seeds at the top of sweet gum trees. ~No purples or siskins today, boo.~ > > Meghan Tice > Glenn Dale, Prince George's County, MD > cecropia13@msn.com > > P.S. Have 6 of 7 woodpeckers here and hoping for the Redhead! > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: parke > Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 1:49 PM > To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM > Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] FInches in Kent County - Purples & Siskins > > The same for my yard as far as Purple Finches and Goldfinches. The Purple > Finches are monopolizing the feeder, the Goldfinches are in the trees with the > sweetgum seeds (comming to the feeder rarely). I can never remember so many > Purple Finches. I was in Garrett County birding over the weekend and > Goldfinches were everywhere, but I did not see any unusual finches. > > What happened to the House Finches? They have disappeared. > > Parke > parke@del.net > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > > > Steve Noyes, Beltsville, PG County, MD noyessh@yahoo.com > > "One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin" ......W.Shakespeare > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================