[Tweeters] Pine Siskins

[Trileigh Tucker]

Hi Tweets,

On Sunday afternoon 2/11, I was walking in my West Seattle neighborhood when I realized that a small tree ahead of me was full of chattery finches: not only House Finches and American Goldfinches, but also Pine Siskins.

It’s been a long time – months to a year or longer – since I’ve encountered a bunch of siskins. They’ve never been vastly abundant in my yard, but I seem to remember seeing them more often, usually in small groups.

I seem to remember reading on Tweeters about others noticing a lack of siskins, but a search of the archives doesn’t turn up many recent reports. I’m curious about others’ experience; have you noticed a lack followed by recent sightings?

I did screengrabs of eBird sightings from Dec-Feb for the past 6 years, and by far the most sightings were recorded this year and in 2020-2021…but I think there’s a chance that that 2020-21 increase in sightings may have been at least partly due to you-know-what and everyone suddenly home and available to look for siskins.

The Finch Research Network<https://finchnetwork.org/western-irruption-alert-pine-grosbeaks-cassins-finches-and-others-making-record-movements> predicted an irruption this year, with indicators noted as far back as July/August. So it’s interesting to see that that might be showing up now. What have you noticed?

Thanks much,
Trileigh


Trileigh Tucker
Pelly Valley, West Seattle


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