We stopped feeding in our yard last summer because of predation by neighbor
cats.  Fall intentions fell aside, but I finally got our feeders set up
again a few days ago.

As expected, it didn't take long:  in the last couple days, we've had a
couple of blue jays, half a dozen juncos, chickadees, goldfinches, titmice,
a pair of cardinals, 3 tree swallows (the first seen in our yard), a pair of
house finches, a bunch of redpolls, and a mourning dove (but no pear tree).

Nice to see little bird bodies hurtling around again.  Backyard just wasn't
the same without them.  We;re looking forward to the rest of the crew
showing up.  Now if I could just find the suet feeder....

Following the discussion about redpolls-- I've noticed that several of our
group this year have lighter coloring than in past years, and a few are
quite pale.  I'm not familiar enough with redpolls, and I notice that even
experts are prone to say "probable" or "possible" hoarys.  But I'm going to
watch them closely and see if I can spot any distinctions amongst them
either in physiology or behavior.  Thanks for the great discussion about
redpolls, so I have an idea what to look for.  This is what makes birding so
interesting!

Dayle Ann
Proctor