The attached photos are from Elkhorn (near Omaha), NE, so they don't "count," but maybe, in the right conditions, this could happen in MD. (Maybe it has--I don't read a lot of the posts.) When the snow and below-freezing temperatures moved into the area, so did the siskins, onto my in-laws' farm property. (In a previous post, I'd talked about the tameness of siskins, etc.) I got these yesterday morning. What they don't show is how I could move my hand around slowly without scaring them. Goldfinches were around, but they are a bit more skittish. I'd never taken bird photos before--my hands were about frozen! The hard part was inching up to them initially. 

Maybe some friendly siskins will descend onto some backyard feeders. It is very cool to have a wild bird land on the hand and peck at the seeds. In northern MN, scrub jays do that. I guess other people have had luck with chickadees, goldfinches, and rb nuts. Merry Christmas!


Tim Houghton
(Glen Arm)