The birds were enjoying an above freezing morning as they picked at the Black-eyed Susan dried flower heads eating seeds. The flower stems bent under the weight of the birds as the junco, goldfinch and redpoll consumed their breakfast.
Birds Enjoying Flowerheads
The number of birds at my feeders is less than previous years and so far I haven’t spotted any Redpolls this February like I have in past years.
Missing Redpoll
The Redpolls normally only spend a month or two during the winter months in my backyard as they actually summer near the arctic circle so apparently they think winter is sticking around here a lot longer. I know they are eating a lot of my seeds and they have throat pouches for temporarily storing seeds so they can fly away to eat the seeds in a more protected spot including under the snow. Redpolls can tunnel into the snow a foot to stay warm during the night.
Redpolls Still Around
This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count, which started yesterday and goes through Monday, where people from around the world count birds and submit their data for research. But counting my finches and redpolls seems like an impossible task with them coming and going so quickly to the feeders and back to the trees.
Counting Birds
