Tens of thousands of finches

Tens of thousands of finches were counted at Hawk Ridge in Duluth this fall, in addition to 59,000 raptors. Below is the seasonal summary as written by Karl Bardon, count director for the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org). He posted this Wednesday on the email network of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union. Bardon predicts that you will see some of those finches -- Common Redpolls -- at your feeders in coming weeks.

=====

The official counting season at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory for the fall
2014 season ended on Nov. 30. Although the raptor migration was
fairly average with a total of over 59,000 raptors counted, the non-raptor
migration was the best ever, with a total of over 357,000 non-raptors
counted (this is over 38,000 birds above the previous high season, and over
70,000 birds above average).

Much of this high count is due to the amazing
count of 111,320 finches, including 15,276 Purple Finches, 38,440 Common
Redpolls, and 52,389 Pine Siskins. This is the highest season to date for
all three of these species, but where did they all go? Judging from mou-net
postings, no large numbers of these finches have been reported south of
Duluth. It would seem that a major invasion of these species is underway,
so it will be interesting to see when and how many of these birds show up
in the south.

Duluth is certainly one of the best places in the country to
see finch migration, but this year the numbers were simply overwhelming!
For those who did not witness the daily barrage of flock after flock after
flock of finches moving down the shore, it may be difficult to conceive
just how many birds these totals represent. Even more amazingly, radar work
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggests this diurnal migration counted
at Hawk Ridge may just be the tip of the iceberg, with unknown additional thousands
of finches potentially moving over at night.

Interestingly, this is not the first time a major invasion of redpolls passed
through Duluth without being recorded in the south, since the same thing
happened in 2011 when over 37,000 Common Redpolls were counted at
Hawk Ridge (mostly in late October). Although Common Redpolls are
generally thought to be on a biannual cycle, current data from Hawk Ridge
shows high numbers of Common Redpolls every three years,
including 20,139 in 2008, 37,759 in 2011, and 38,440 in 2014
(most of which were in November). So will redpolls show up at your feeder
this winter? I sure think so!

Daily updates of migration throughout the season are provided at
www.hawkcount.org/hawkridge, and weekly blogs summarizing the
count areprovided at http://hawkridgeblog.blogspot.com

Below, a Common Redpoll.