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Re: feeder excitement (Croom)

From:

Jeff Shenot

Reply-To:

Jeff Shenot

Date:

Sun, 9 Dec 2007 09:19:22 -0500

Yesterday was a great day here too, I finally saw a siskin at our feeder!  I 
have been tempted to respond to the "last ... to see a siskin" string, but was 
confident it would eventually happen.  We have a variety of feeder stations 
and I have been looking a lot - but only when I am home.  It's an important 
distinction, because my wife had occasionally seen groups of finches at the 
feeders (2 or 3 times) in the mid-day.  Since she does not try to distinguish 
species and I had not seen this happen, I was guessing we may have a siskin 
or two around and it was just a matter of time for me to see one here.

For reference, we normally have about 3-4 goldfinches and 6-7 house finches 
here daily (this fall) that eat the safflower and black-oil sunflower about 
equally.  But yesterday at about 11:00 am the number doubled when a "group" 
showed up, and I was here!  Sure enough there was a siskin.  Now I'm curious 
to see them again, since this "group" was not really all in one flock; they were 
here at the same time, but left variously.  The purple finches and siskins 
seemed to be independent; the siskins were the first to leave and the purple 
finches left here last.  The "group" was here about 45 minutes.  The most 
birds counted at one time were:  Purple Finch 4; House Finch 9; Pine Siskin 2; 
A. Goldfinch 9.  We also had a bonus!, our first Fox Sparrow of the season (2).

Cheers!
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD