Greetings,

The past few weeks have seen little in the way of new arrivals at the feeders. The one exception was a single American Tree Sparrow (1st of season) on Thanksgiving Day. The other recent event of note was the visitation of thousands of blackbirds to the neighborhood during several large migration events. 95% of the flocks were comprised of Common Grackles, with singles mixed in of Brown-headed Cowbird and a few late Red-winged Blackbirds. Putting in many minutes of searching did not yield a hopeful Rusty Blackbird. With the feeders going slow, I may not need to put out all that I own (14) and just keep it to the feeder system out front and out back. The true test will come when the weather makes the eventual turn for the worst. The only downside (but good for the birds) is the fact that we will not be seeing many of the irruptive finch species from the north (siskins, redpolls, grosbeaks) due to the large cone and seed crops produced in the northern boreal region. Maybe next year…

~Chad (11/28/2006)