Exploring The Last Green Valley: A gathering of winter flocks
This winter I’ve noticed a variety of winter bird species gathering in flocks at my feeder. Each year I expect to see several dark eyed juncos scouring the grass under our feeder. This year they arrived in late fall, right on time from nesting grounds in northern Canada. If robins and blue birds are avian harbingers of spring, then the dark eyed junco is a harbinger of winter. They’re ground feeders, and when I refill the bird feeder, I make sure to scatter some of the precious seeds on the ground for these visitors. A few weeks back I counted more than 15 of them at the same time, which struck me as unusual.