We first noticed a Mountain Chickadee on Christmas, and there is at least
one visiting today. The Mountain Chickadee seems to be a hit and run artist
at the sunflower seed feeder, grabbing a seed and flying off.
Chestnut-backed Chickadees seem to linger in the nearby quince bush to pick
apart sunflower seeds, as do Black-capped chickadees perhaps to a slightly
lesser extent. That's just an impression, though, I haven't done a proper
statistical analysis. There is also a White-throated Sparrow among a dozen
or so Golden-crowned Sparrows. We don't (as a rule) get White-crowned
Sparrows here.
A Cooper's Hawk came in a bit ago, landing on the ground by the quince bush,
apparently going for one of the ground feeders.
Here's what I recorded in about 20 minutes just now:
Species
Count
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
1
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) 2
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)
1
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 5
Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) 1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens) 9
Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca)
1
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla) 8
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) 1
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 1
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) 5
Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus) 5
Good birding,
Jeff
