Hello Bird People,

Looked for the Redpolls at their usual location but did not find them. But
I soon learned that today they decided to eat Birch seeds on the south side
of the Regenstein Center instead the usual N.E. side. At 1st I only saw
about 25 of them but the group soon was back to the 35-40 that I have been
seeing for the last few weeks. Perhaps due to the slight snow cover the 2
thistle feeders had many more birds visiting than I'd seen there all
winter. In addition to the usual Chickadees,
Junco's & Goldfinch I also saw 4 Redpolls, one Pine Siskin (the 1st one
I've seen here in 3-4 weeks) & one White Throated Sparrow. Not much to
report on the ducks with only 16 Mallards, the winter resident
female Common Goldeneye & one fancy looking male Red Breasted Merg being
seen today. There were 62 Herring Gulls back at the North Lake construction
area trying to dig up more dead fish. The only other birds seen were the
one winter Robin, 3-4 Cardinals & 5 House Finch of which 3 were louding
singing males. I've decided that House Finch is now the most likely bird
that I will hear singing in the winter/spring as they seem to start even
earlier than Cardinals.

A quick drive along Forest Way & Tower Rd showed that almost all the
ponds/lagoons are ice covered & the only large area of open water is at the
boat launch area off Tower Rd toward the Edens. This is where the Barrow's
was on the 1st Friday it was seen. There is a very small area of open water
where Tower & Forest Way meet but only enough for 15 Common Goldeneye. By
the boat launch were 127 Common Goldeneye, 37 Mallards & one male Hooded
Merg. And NO Barrow's that I could find anyway.

Those of you who visit the Botanic Garden know that one pond is kept open
for the 2 pair of resident Trumpeter Swans & this is where wintering
Goldeneye also stay. Today at that pond one of the 2 pair of Trumpeters was
loudly going through courtship rituals which included bill touching & neck
waving while constantly making that trumpet like honking that gives them
their name. The other pair wasn't interested in any of that stuff with the
female sleeping & male eating early lunch. It suddenly dawned on me that
one pair realized what day it was (Feb 14th) but the other had forgotten.
So in honor of this day I will give my Bird-Of-The-Day award to the
non-wild but very entertaining pair of Trumpeter Swans who put on quite a
fine show today.

And to all you Bird People have a happy Valentine's Day whether you spent
it doing courtship rituals or by eating & sleeping.

Al Stokie


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