Will this be an “irruption” year?
Some winters bring “irruptive” finches and other songbirds, as well as some owls, to our gardens, feeders and surrounding areas. The newly released Winter Finch Forecast has some thoughts on what we might see. Overall they are not predicting a big year, but there are always at least some of these birds to enjoy in winter.
We were thrilled to see that one of our favorite irruptive birds did appear, almost like magic, yesterday, atop nearby Mount Washington (Observatory Facebook post, right). Since the report said the bird took off and soared to lower elevations, we grabbed our gear and drove to the base of the mountain, searching fields and rooftops for the owl. No luck, but very exciting to know there is one around. It’s kind of amazing that this owl was flying above 6000 feet of elevation when it landed on the Auto Road building! They are far more like to be spotted on the seacoast than Mount Washington Valley, so this was quite the sighting.
This Thursday night we’ll be presenting a Mass Audubon on-line program about these winter visitors, talking about which species we might see. We have special permission to use some dazzling pictures from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library. We’ll also share some of the reasons why these birds, like the Bohemian Waxwings (pictured left), come south of their usual wintering grounds, and how you might see them. You can register here: https://www.massaudubon.org/programs/mass-audubon-education/93758-autumn-avians-sudden-population-surges
We will be presenting this program live at the Jackson Public Library on February 11, 2025.