"Winter" finches and tardy migrants

Redpoll flocks are everywhere. Many are taking advantage of the bumper crop of White Birch seeds. Many more can be seen migrating along the Lake Superior coast, from SE to NW. I saw the first flocks, numbering ~140 individuals, on October 13. On the morning of the 18th I tallied ~1250 redpolls migrating westward. Since then they have been ubiquitous. Today I spotted a Hoary Redpoll, a very pale male "exilipes", feeding in a birch with a dozen or so Common Redpolls.

[click on images to enlarge]

Common Redpolls feeding on Birch Seeds.

Since late spring we've grown accustomed to very good numbers of White-winged Crossbills that have taken advantage of the abundant crop of White Spruce cones. Along the north shore, males could be heard singing through the summer. In the last month, WWCR numbers have grown and have been joined among the cones by Pine Siskins.

White-winged Crossbills and Pine Siskin, Marathon, Oct 27.

Northern Shrikes are more conspicuous this autumn. I saw three this afternoon. All were chasing redpolls.

Northern Shrike at the Pic RIver, Oct 25.

A few interesting late-to-depart passerines have shown up in recent days.

Brown Thrasher in Heron Bay, Oct 25.

Black-throated Blue Warbler at Marathon, Oct 27.

Lastly, in nearby Manitouwadge a female Eastern Towhee - a real rarity in northern Ontario - showed up in Tammie Hache's yard today [thanks for the use of your photo, Tammie!]

Eastern Towhee in Manitouwadge Oct 27. Tammie Hache