A Lily Fan captured a photo of Holly and Lucky interacting. I don’t know if they actually touched, but they are almost touching noses, which I believe could be a start of more. We’ll see.
Holly and Lucky
Big Mr. Marten, probably twice the weight of Ms. Marten suddenly was outside my window today but gone before I could grab a camera. I’m glad to see him.
A goldfinch appeared today, reminding me of the many that have been here in the past. They flock with pine siskins, which are in the same genus. Goldfinches are Spinus tristis and pine siskins are Spinus pinus. Pine siskins are much tamer than goldfinches. Generally northern birds are tamer than more southern ones, although there isn’t a great difference between the northern extent of their ranges here in the Midwest. There’s more about tameness on page 103 of this article Rogers, L. L. 2005. Weight-carrying ability and caching behavior of Gray Jays, Perisoreus canadensis: Adaptations to boreal winter. The Canadian Field-Naturalist 119(1):101-104. Click on the highlighted title to see the entire paper.
Goldfinch maleI had a chance to compare the tameness of siskins and goldfinches when many of each species were feeding on sunflower seeds on the railing on December 18, 2000. I went out and they all flew up in the trees. I stood by the railing. Three chickadees immediately began landing about 3 feet from me and carrying seeds away as they do. Some of the siskins and goldfinches watched me a few minutes and flew to other feeders or away. Then some began flying closer as the chickadees continued to come and go. A siskin landed a foot from me and sat watchful. He sat close to me but away from the place the chickadees were feeding. A red-breasted nuthatch landed three feet away and carried a seed away. 42 more siskins landed over the next 2-4 minutes. Number 44 to land was a goldfinch. even though there were many in the tree. Two more siskins landed. I went inside and counted as they landed again. There were 45 siskins and 18 goldfinches. So, when I was out there, all of the siskins landed; but only 1 of 18 goldfinches landed.
Thanks for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center