Today's lonely Evening Grosbeak got me wondering ...
I haven't seen all of the numbers from this winter's CBCs yet, but the pattern
of very low Evening Grosbeak numbers in the past two winters seems to be
continuing into this winter.
In 2016-17 only 3 (three) were recorded on CBCs, in total, statewide.
In 2017-18 numbers were up a bit with a total of 41 on Oregon CBCs, but only 2
in the Willamette Valley, and only 5 on coastal CBCs.
I did look at eBird and it gives no real clues. If you add up all of the
reports from the western U.S. and Canada in this winter and last, I doubt it
would add up to a tenth of what you could find on the Oregon State campus on an
average day in April. Here and there you might find a report of 15 or 25 birds,
but most reports are of singles or a handful of birds. Certainly nothing like
the flocks of 100+ that I remember encountering at the Summer Lake Rest Area in
winter 10-15 years ago.
Any ideas?
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
