Redpolls in the Snow

My View from the South Beach of Lake Agassiz

It felt like snow this morning - gray, humid and bone-chilling cold.   As I walked out the door, it hit my eyeglasses first, then my cheeks.  The first serious snow of the season.

I had errands in town, but I am averse to driving on icy wet pavement.  So I turned around and went back inside to get my serious, snow-shoveling gloves.  The sky spit a fine white dust.  Later it turned wet.  I was grateful there was no wind.

There is a quiet tranquility in the first snow.

The only sounds came from my shovel, the muffled calls of birds near my feeders and an irritated red squirrel, scolding me for disturbing his peace.

After noon, I took a look out my kitchen window to see who's been visiting my bird feeding station.  Black-capped Chickadees bounced from the sunflower tube to the nearby willow stump, where they whacked open their seeds.  Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers pecked at the peanut butter suet cage.  Both Red- and White-breasted Nuthatches patiently took turns at the sunflower perches.  A handful of demure American Goldfinches lined up at the thistle feeder, sharing it with a lone Pine Siskin.

Then a "new" bird flew up to the thistle tube, scaring off the goldfinches.

At first I thought - another siskin.  But no, the bill was the wrong color and shape.  The new bird turned and cocked his head towards me - a Common Redpoll! The red cap and rosy chest cinched the ID.

My first of the season... and the first I've seen in years.

Common Redpoll

Redpolls, like their boreal cousins, are irruptive species.  According to Ron Pittaway's Winter Finch Forecast, this should be a great winter for spotting redpolls in Minnesota.

How do they know?

Fact #1:  Redpolls eat white birch seeds.  There wasn't much of a crop in Canada this fall.

Fact #2:  Redpolls also had a good breeding season this year - with double and possibly triple broods.

A poor food crop combined with a population explosion creates the "perfect storm" - resulting in an irruption year.

If you want to see them in your yard this winter - keep your sunflower and thistle/nyjer tube feeders full.