Saturday, March 28, 2009
Redpoll migration
Yesterday, there were 100+/- redpolls in our yard feasting on seeds. The trees were full of trills and chirps, and the air swarmed with birds dashing to and from the feeders to the ground to the trees to the feeders again. We have had to fill the bird feeders twice a day for about two weeks. Every day we seem to have had more redpolls. Now, the feeder is empty except for a couple of chickadees and less than a dozen redpolls. There are about 40 redpolls that have been hanging out at various times today, but the huge flock that was here yesterday has vanished. Could it really be time for them to leave?
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Hah! found you! Our neighbor, Judy Stauffer, is a migration stop for the spring redpoll mobs. We get a few carryovers, but Judy's got hundreds of them flying through her yard. (We have cats, so they tend to stay away...)
ReplyDeletei have hundreds of red polls gorging since December and now they are starting to gather....their main fair seems to be niger seed but they love the ground grousing also...hate when i see them leave for their journey north....all of a sudden at once one day...no more chirping like crickets in the trees
ReplyDeleteWe are in Chelsea Quebec, near Ottawa, and are trying to figure out if the Spring migration is actually underway. We've had about 40 redpolls all Winter but the number has frequently been around 150 over the last few weeks. It's an absolute symphony of birds. Some days, though, are relatively quiet with only a few birds, and then we will have the huge hoard of them reappear. We will have to stop feeding the birds shortly because the bears will be showing up. We have never had this amount of birds this late in the season. Although we will miss them greatly, we hope they will migrate soon before we have to stop feeding them.
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