[Birdtalk] In my yard, too

[Mark Stackhouse]

I've had some unusual visitors in my yard, too, in the last week, and 
like the others reporting, they seem to be high-altitude, 
mid-winter-type birds here too early, or in two cases, here at all 
where I've rarely seen them. The first one I noticed was a Mountain 
Chickadee last week, only the second record for my yard. This bird 
continues to come to my feeders daily. The next day, a Pine Siskin 
appeared, something that I see at least a few of every year, though 
it's been a while since I've had them in numbers. Two days later at 
least fifteen siskins were present. They have now seemed to have moved 
on - or I've missed them. The same day that the"gang" of siskins showed 
up, an adult White-crowned Sparrow came, and a day later an immature 
joined it. I've had White-throated Sparrow (a regular visitor for a few 
days each Fall) more often than White-crowned, of which I can only 
remember seeing on a few occasions in the past. These also continue.

A more regular fall visitor, a White-breasted Nuthatch has also been 
here over the last week, along with a fine parade of 
non-feeder-visiting migrants - various warblers, Western Tanagers, 
Swainson's Thrush, etc. It's not quite Mexico, but it's been fun to 
watch.

One final note - I'm much more confident of the reactive nature of 
birds than the predictive. I suspect that the early appearance of so 
many mountain birds in the valleys at this early date has much more to 
do with the hot, dry summer than any prediction of a cold, snowy 
winter. But we can still hope for such a winter . . .

My house is in Sugar House, in case you're wondering where these 
sightings are from.

Mark Stackhouse
mark at westwings.com
801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)