Yesterday I climbed Ampersand Mountain for some exercise and the amazing view. It's a challenging trail with some tricky footing in spots, but overall short in length and well worth the effort. The view of the high peaks to the east and the Saranac Lakes chain to the west is what makes this mountain so popular with locals and tourists alike. On this cool fall day the mountain was far more popular with birds than people, as I only passed one other person but saw hundreds of birds.
Hundreds of birds in the woods in November? It doesn't seem likely but with the numbers of Pine Siskins that have invaded the Adirondacks from their usual home in the northern boreal forest this fall, flocks in the hundreds have become rather common on my recent hikes. Usually these flocks are just passing overhead, and I hear them call as they fly through the trees. As I mentioned in an earlier post, they sound a lot like goldfinches, which people are more familiar with as regular visitors to backyard birdfeeders. The only difference is a slightly buzzier zeeEET call that they also make when they are perched high in the trees (you can listen to the call here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pine_Siskin/sounds ). As I descended Ampersand yesterday I heard the calls of numerous siskins in a col just below the summit. I had brought my telephoto lens for my camera in the hopes of encountering a Boreal Chickadee, but had been disappointed by them so I decided that the siskins might be a good subject on which to practice my photography skills. A dozen birds or so had landed in a tree nearby, but I decided that pishing might draw them in closer. After just a couple of pishes the chirps and zeets suddenly became louder and far more numerous, filling the otherwise quiet woods with sound. What I thought was only a dozen siskins turned out to be at least 200 birds! I've never been swarmed by so many birds in the forest before, it was truly an amazing sight! Some of them landed within 10 feet of my lens in a small shrub, while the majority of them stayed in the bare branches of taller trees right above me. I snapped about 100 pictures with a dozen different settings in an attempt to get a nice shot despite the bright backlight of overcast skies, which turned out to be rather impossible. I did, however, manage to capture the moment with photos that include dozens of siskins in one shot, and a few close-ups that show the markings of a siskin for those who are unfamiliar with them. At birdfeeders siskins are most easily confused with female House Finches or Purple Finches, as those species are also small birds streaked with brownish gray. The main difference between them is their bills--a siskin has a thin bill, longer than it is wide, while finches have a short stout bill where the length and thickness are fairly equal. Siskins also have finer streaking than similar finches and have a darker head with a yellowish tinge in good light. If you see one take off you might catch a flash of yellow from a yellow patch of feathers on their wing that is usually concealed when they are perched.
House and Purple Finches can be seen in the Adirondacks year round, but Pine Siskins are rarely seen outside of winter. Large numbers of siskins invade the north country every 2-3 years on average, and this year is shaping up to be one of the biggest years in a while. The abundance of food sources this year from an excellent cone, nut, and berry crop has the siskins staying in the woods so far this winter, but when food supplies dwindle with colder weather they will likely begin to visit feeders in search of thistle seed. I've got my thistle feeder full and waiting for the siskins to arrive, but haven't seen them come off the mountains yet. So keep an ear out for siskins if you're hiking in the Adirondacks this winter, and keep your eyes peeled at your backyard feeders, as they're bound to visit sometime soon.
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