My first major winter season of birding has surely been a special one! This has been what is know as an "irruption" year. This definitely has nothing to do with volcanos. It has to do with the influx of bird species of which regularly occur much farther North. If winter stores of food do not come into fruition for certain bird species, then some of these species will migrate to different regions of the country in search of food.
There are several more northernly bird species that are coming down into the lower 48 states this year. They include: Evening and Pine Grosbeak, Red and White-winged Crossbill, Common and Hoary Redpoll and Pine Siskin. Snowy Owls are considered an irruptive species, however, that topic is for another post (lol, when I get some pics on them). I'll stick to passerines for now.
This season I have seen one of each of the aforementioned species. I actually only heard the Evening Grosbeak at the Cape May Hawk Watch thanks to the counter, who quickly drew my attention to it. Also at Cape May were Red Crossbill of which I was able to see. I was not fortunate enough to see White-winged Crossbill at Cape May, although they are occurring there regularly as of late.
On November 30, 2012 I was lucky enough to see an entire flock of Common Redpoll at Losen Slote Creek Park in Little Ferry, NJ. I had gone out there specifically to see them because of an eBird rare bird report I had received on my iPhone. After an hour of searching I was about to head back home when all of a sudden a flock of birds whizzed over my head. I knew it had to be the Redpolls! Only problem is they were headed in a direction nowhere near me. After waiting another 15 minutes the flock headed back my way and landed in a nearby birch tree. They immediately began feeding on the cones, cracking them open for the seeds they contain. Closely feeding with the Redpolls was an American Goldfinch. Even a few Fox Sparrows flew over to the tree to inspect what they were eating.
Common Redpoll in Losen Slote Creek Park, Little Ferry, NJ. The second to last picture shows an American Goldfinch feeding with one of the Common Redpolls.
Fox Sparrow checking out the action!
Although I haven't seen several of these species in New Jersey I am not too worried. I am moving back to Iowa in eight days. I have been following eBird and IA-Bird reports and there have been White-winged Crossbill reports not far from where I am going to be during Christmas. I am definitely going to be alert for these irruption species back home!
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