siskins 'n' stuff

The Siskins are back!

Well, some of them anyway. Small flocks of a dozen or so birds have turned up with American Goldfinches, all feeding around the edge of the marsh. They're probably not returns but new birds coming in.

In fact, there was a substantial flight last night with a variety of new arrivals. I made it down to the middle of the marsh before sunrise but there was still a bit of water in the open pond at the middle with two Mallards swimming around; no shorebirds or rails. There was, however, a chucking Marsh Wren right in the marsh grass between my perch and the open water, first I've seen in a while. There was also a Winter Wren further up at the head of the marsh.

Many sparrows are in: lots of the regulars (White-throated and Song, both singing, plus Swamp) plus a few Chipping Sparrows, numbers of Dark-eyed Juncos and at least one beautiful adult White-crowned Sparrow. There was also a pod (I'd hardly call it a flock) of thrushes. All the ones I could see had reddish tails and these were probably mostly Hermit Thrushes; but there were one or two that had grayish rather than whitish eye-rings and distinctly did not wag their tails (a Hermit Thrush giveaway) and might have been Bicknell's Thrushes; tough call. Yellow-rumped Warblers are everywhere from the ground to the tops of the trees (where they perform flycatcher-like flights to catch insects).

Both nuthatches are still here (White-breasted almost seem to outnumber Red-breasted). Also Ruby-crowned Kinglets (but the Golden-crowned all seem to have passed through). A pair of Cedar Waxwings came zipping overhead, the first that I've seen in a long time.

A remarkable first-of-the-season was a flocklet of four calling Snow Geese high overhead -- the advance guard of what is sure to be a big deal a little later in the season.

Eric Salzman