[Birdnet] Re: Carol Gwynn's sighting of Cassin's Finch inWashington Park

[tanager at timaverybirding.com]

Carol's sighting isn't all that surprising this year.  Both. Pine Siskin and Cassin's Finch have been reported from the valleys in the past 2 weeks.  I would guess Washington Park is at least 6000' in elevation so fairly high with a number of cobidepis trees. Throw in its location in a canyon with mid elevation conifer stands on the mountains on either side, foraging birds are always a possibility. 

But in respect to David's thought, it is in my opinion quite accurate and as they say, the proof is in the pudding! During the last 2 weeks while leading field trips and just out wandering it was obvious that many of the usual montane nesting species were either completely lacking in typical habitat, at lower elevations in "odd" habitat, or nowhere to be found!  In many areas there was still snow and will be for some time to come.  The snow isn't the direct cause of the missing or misplaced birds but the cause of the cause so to speak.  Many trees were not yet producing leaves, etc, and that disrupts the entire food chain resulting in species having to search out food in areas where food is available (for many of these species insects are the main food source... The finches of course are seed eaters and with the oresumed poor seed crop last fall its not surprising that some seed eaters are still out of habitat).  Now this isn't to say all seed eaters or even all members of a certain species are out of habitat.  But individuals wandering would make sense. 

A couple of interesting notes from the Brighton area last week.  There were still NO Red Crossbill's around. Only a lone and distant Olive-sided Flycatcher was heard singing as opposed to a few normally visible on the tree tops.   Only a single Red-breasted Nuthatch was heard.  No Golden-crowned Kinglet or Brown Creeper were heard or seen. No solitaires, bluebirds, towhees and only 1 Song Sparrow! Certainly not a typical summer to say the least!

Cheers and Good Birding!

Tim 

------Original Message------
From: David Jensen
Sender: birdnet-bounces at utahbirds.org
To: birdnet
ReplyTo: dlj11350 at yahoo.com
Subject: [Birdnet] Re: Carol Gwynn's sighting of Cassin's Finch inWashington Park
Sent: Jul 2, 2008 1:25 PM

I was surprised just a couple of weeks ago (mid-June) to see a male Western Tanager in the parking lot of my building on 2nd Avenue in Salt Lake. What was up with that bird? Carol Gwynn's sighting of the Cassin's Finch in Washington Park seems just a tiny less odd as, of course, the elevatin is much higher there - and I've been wondering if some birds have been putting off nesting in the mountains due to so much snow (?). Just a thought. But the Tanager was still a big surprise. 
David Jensen 
 
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