Siskins and redpolls, Spring 2007-8

Redpolls, 4 March 2008

In February and March 2007 there was an irruption of siskins and redpolls in the area.

Although we have had siskins for the majority of recording weeks over the years, we have very rarely seen redpolls. They had occasionally arrived with siskins, but did not feed in the garden until we put out nyger.

Numbers started increasing in late February 2007, and by the first week in March we were getting by far the largest counts we had ever had of both these species. I scattered nyger on our ground feeder to give a wider feeding area for the redpolls. I also started recording daily instead of weekly, and the maximum numbers seen at once were as below.

On 23rd February 2008 we suddenly had a huge rise in numbers again. This year the numbers were even higher, with our largest count ever for both siskins and redpolls.

2007	siskins	redpolls		2008	siskins	redpolls
wb 04/02	2	-		wb 03/02	16	-
wb 11/02	14	-		wb 10/02	7	-
wb 18/02	30	1		22/02	28	-
				23/02	45	7	largest ever total of siskins
				24/02	18	1
				25/02	20	5
				26/02	36	14
				27/02	20	6
28/02	20	6		28/02	18	6
28/02	20	6		29/02	27	10
01/03	14	6		01/03	27	11
02/03	3	-		02/03	14	7
03/03	14	3		03/03	40	17
04/03	29	12		04/03	11	15
05/03	37	12	maximum no. of siskins	05/03	27	23
06/03	13	7		06/03	30	20
07/03	9	12		07/03	35	20
08/03	3	8		08/03	43	25
09/03	16	16	maximum no. of redpolls	09/03	21	3
10/03	14	13	a sparrowhawk hit the window at 7:50, failing to make a catch	10/03	30	23
11/03	14	9		11/03	26	14
12/03	9	12		12/03	30	37	largest ever total of redpolls
13/03	18	15		13/03	16	23
14/03	12	10		14/03	31	17
15/03	7	13		15/03	22	20
16/03	10	8	numbers low because I was working outside	16/03	9	12
17/03	27	12		17/03	1	-
18/03	16	12		18/03	1	-
19/03	7	10		19/03	1	-
20/03	3	1		20/03	4	-
21/03	2	-		21/03	-	-
22/03	1	1		22/03	-	-
23/03	2	1		23/03	-	-
24/03	-	1		24/03	-	-

redpolls and siskins in our garden, 12 March 2008

Siskins and redpolls, 12 March 2008