We spent this period at our second home on Cedar Creek and did eBird counts
every morning and a Feeder Watch count on 2 days. The first weather event that
hit the night of the 23rd-24th left under and inch of granular ice/snow that
persisted until the next night. The second event which arrived on the 25th and
lasted until the morning of the night of the 26th left 5 inches of snow that
completely covered trees and shrubbery (making for some wonderful photo-ops).
Many of our regular winter birds were in normal numbers, but we did experience
some exceptional highs. Our high count for Dark-eyed Juncos was 35 (27th),
Pine Siskins - 64 (24th), and Am. Goldfinches - 69 (25th)—these are counts, not
estimates and almost certainly are conservative given the frenetic activity of
the two fringillids. These may be records for us (since 1979), but I haven’t
taken the time to make that determination. Somewhat surprisingly, we had no
Purple Finches after having a few much of the winter so far, and we had no
other irruptives like Am. Tree Sparrows or Red-breasted Nuthatches. The only
other species of note was an adult male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that came to
our suet feeder on several days. They don’t seem to overwinter in our area
every year.
Happy 2015 and good birding
Dave Davis
Arlington and Zepp