Siskin Storm

Some days and posts ago, I wrote about Pine Siskins. Recall this line in particular: 

Some years, as this year appears to be, we get these in large numbers ...

Did we ever.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

While sitting at her desk on the last Sunday in October, Patty spotted a small flock eating seeds in our garden.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

Look closely at the above image. I see at least eight Siskin. 

We would have over twelve times as many this day.

Above are a few more eating seeds in another one of our gardens. I count seven.

And just above the previous image, which I had taken when putting out more birdseed on the platform feeder shown here, we have a bit of a crowd. Forty plus Pine Siskin. 

Those keeping score at home (or wherever you may be reading this) know we are over fifty Siskin so far.

This shot, out our living room windows, has over fifty more Siskin. You'll need to bigafy to see them, and even then it is tough as they blend in with the leaf litter. The post for the platform feeder shown in the previous image can be seen at the upper left edge of this image.

Another view of the birds out my living room window. There are over fifty Siskin in this image.

Another twenty plus bird on the top step immediately outside the living room. 

They were everywhere ...

Crazy.

Since the 'storm' we averaged forty to fifty Siskin daily for close to two weeks. And now we are down to maybe ten a day. It seems our yard was just a rest stop. A stopover on their migration further south. As can be seen from this linked range map, they spend the winer in much of the lower forty-eight and in to Mexico.

Crazy.