Evening Grosbeak is one of the many species that has undergone a large
population decline in the U.S. and Canada. ABA's publication Birding had a
feature on this within the past couple of years. Partner's In Flight estimates
their population has declined over 90% since the 70's. When we first moved to
Portland in the early 80's it was a species I reliably saw at our feeders in
the winter. Now I haven't had any in a few years. I can't help but think this
is the reason they do not show up in the numbers they use to.
Gerard Lillie
Portland, OR
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Subject: [obol] Re: Evening Grosbeaks
Hi-
My first thought is maybe they are staying farther north, longer into the
winter?
Wayne
On 1/6/2019 12:37:19 AM, clearwater@xxxxxxxx <clearwater@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
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
