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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

AWOL in the North Country

An abundance of food in Canada is keeping many our favorite birds closer to home

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 12/4/19

The annual highlight of the winter bird feeder in the North Country has gone missing. I’m, of course, talking about the virtual absence of pine grosbeaks across our region, a trend that many bird …

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AWOL in the North Country

An abundance of food in Canada is keeping many our favorite birds closer to home

Posted

The annual highlight of the winter bird feeder in the North Country has gone missing. I’m, of course, talking about the virtual absence of pine grosbeaks across our region, a trend that many bird fans have begun to recognize with varying degrees of despondency.
I first noticed their absence during deer season. While they often don’t show up at feeders until late November or December, their pleasing whistled song can be heard in our area woods usually by the third week of October. Pine grosbeaks breed a bit north and east of Minnesota, but they’re regular residents of the North Country during late fall and winter. They’re gentle birds, and quite tame at the feeder.
Pine grosbeaks aren’t entirely absent from our area this year. The Ely Field Naturalists have reported a handful of sightings in the past couple weeks, but that’s a far cry from the usual numbers we see.
If there’s good news to report, it’s that the absence of pine grosbeaks does not appear to be related to any population decline. According to annual wild food surveys conducted across much of Canada, a bumper crop of mountain ash berries (a favorite of pine grosbeaks), along with an abundant spruce cone and black ash seed crop, is expected to keep the grosbeaks close to their breeding range this winter. Birds generally only migrate to take advantage of better food resources, so if there’s adequate food in their breeding range, there’s little reason for pine grosbeaks to move at all this winter.
The abundance of mountain ash to our north is also likely to diminish the numbers of bohemian waxwings we see this winter, at least for the early part of the season. A hefty crop of birch seeds in Canada is also likely to limit the movements of redpolls into our area.
Things could change later in the winter as birds begin to deplete some of the food sources to our north. If so, we could expect to see at least some limited movement of these northern finches into the North Country. Even one or two pine grosbeaks can brighten a cold winter day.
While some of our usual winter visitors may be in short supply, there’s another trend this year that could add a bit more variety at area feeders. At least up until Thanksgiving, many bird observers were reporting juncos, white-throated sparrows, fox sparrows, and other species that should have gone south by now, were still being seen around the area. We’ve seen goldfinches as well in recent days, another species that normally winters south of our region.
Steve Piragis, near Ely, reported and even photographed a hermit thrush still hanging out in the area. There have also been a number of reports of robins that are still being spotted here in the North Country.
Hopefully, a few of our typical snowbirds will remain in the north this winter to provide a little diversity at the winter feeder. Otherwise, without our pine grosbeaks, winter just won’t be the same.

birds, pine grosbeaks