A matter of life and death

The cosmos seemed to be speaking to me the other day.  I kept running across web posts about aging and death.  I thought at first it might not have been a good day to go out and about, but I survived with no ill effects.

The first message came in an article about a study that showed it is dangerous to fixate on your own aging.  The news article said the study compared people constantly worried about growing old with people constantly concerned about being fat.  The study found that women of all ages complain about being old, and that calling yourself old can make you feel as bad about your body as calling yourself fat. The research links so called 'old talk' to greater levels of body dissatisfaction, which can in turn lead to higher rates of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and more physical and mental health problems."

"The study included only women because the author suspects this is less of a problem for men, 'because men are allowed to age' said the author, a psychology professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. 'You just look at aging male celebrities – they become 'distinguished' or 'handsome' in this older way where as women are not really allowed to do this.'"

Here's some news for her:  All men are not movie stars.  Some, in fact a lot of us, don't age into the distinguished category.  The way I have approached it has been to embrace the age, but don't necessarily live by society's expectations for someone that old.  In simpler words I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  I have also found a way to at least laugh in its face, for instance, calling myself the second oldest lil monster or preferring to be a dirty old man to being a senior citizen.  I am not fighting age, but I am not giving in to it either.  Her advice in part was not to talk about it but I think that is wrong.  I think maybe it is better to talk and laugh and move gracefully into it, not fight it or let it diminish your own self image.  There was even a poll on the story asking people how often they are guilty of "old talk."  The choices were never or rarely, sometimes, and often.  I woud have hit often, but would have objected to feeling any guilt about it whatsoever.  Guilty, are all these stories written by children?

After going through the aging thought process, another item showed up.  That's the picture.  When I was younger and environmentally idealistic, and thought about death, I imagined my burial in a plain wood coffin that would deteriorate quickly and without embalming so my body would also.  Then have a few tree seeds placed atop the coffin as it was lowered into the ground.  That way a tree would grow in time, with two benefits: one, that I would have given something back to Earth, and, two that the living tree was acceptable to me as a path to eternal life.  That tree would grow, drop seeds and others would grow and so it goes, eternally unless interrupted by some outside force.

Now I find, well, forgive me, it's like there's an app for that.  These folks have designed and sell a biodegradable  bucket just the size for cremains and with nutrients and maybe seeds.  I suppose you could add your own seeds to fit your climate.  But it serves the purpose and looks like a good way to go.  I have been to their web site but still haven't figured out how to order one, but I am going to and take one less burden off the people who have to clean up my lifetime mess.  To me that is a good use of a body. 

But the soul, oh the soul, what do you do with that?  I don't believe in heaven or that kind of eternal life but I do feel the presence of a spirit within the mind that might amount to what religious people call a soul, that 21-gram entity that departs the body at the precise moment of death.  Most people, myself included, as they grow older at some time or other remark about how time seems to move faster.  Part of that, of course, is that each year becomes a smaller percentage of your total life as you age.  But my theory is that maybe time or at least our passage through it does speed up with age.  As it gains speed, it eventually reaches terminal velocity, and given that we are on a spinning sphere, centrifugal force spins the soul out of the body and flings it into the vacuum of space, leaving the remains behind to regenerate the earth.  I can live, and die, with that.

The original story about age talk.

The website for the bios urn.

Enough redpolls yet?

I put some fancy feed in this one and they crowded it
until it was empty.

Probably a little bit of overkill, but there is something new about them, especially if anybody is feeding them.  Last night I cleaned and disinfected all my feeders after reading the following on the Audubon user groups page.

With so many people reporting large flocks of redpolls mobbing their
feeders, I’d like to share some tips from the Bird Treatment &
Learning Center about preventing the spread of disease.

Salmonella and E. coli are two pathogens that can be spread at bird
feeders. Birds suffering from an infection will often appear more
fluffed and less active than the rest of the flock and may stay for
long periods of time on or under a feeder, seeming to eat but actually
just mumbling their food around and dropping it again (well bathed in
microbes).

It’s a good idea to start sanitizing feeders between fill-ups with a
10% bleach solution, if it is a plastic feeder. For wooden tray
feeders and areas on the ground, scrape up seed remains and spray with
diluted white vinegar (I'm guessing 30% vinegar).


Chris Maack
Bird Treatment & Learning CenterAnchorage 

A male pine grosbeak maybe have been suffering
from what Chris Maack was talking about.

I had seen one bird that look and acted like it had the symptoms he describes.  It was a male pine grosbeak and here is a picture of it.

And last night cleaned and disinfected and refilled the feeders.

Nothing stops them.  Another week another 40-pound bag of sunflower seeds.  Come on Spring.


If you haven't had enough YET, here's a gallery from today.

Also the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has an article about superflights and why we might be seeing so many redpolls this year.

Original story.

The definition of cool

Dawn on the big ocean, father and son.
Photo by Annie Daly

Yesterday and today this blog has been found three times by people using the search words: "Why are Alaskans so cool?"  The first reaction was total ego. I read it to mean someone (or at least Google) thinks I am cool.  But reading again and giving it some thought, I realized someone out there thinks all Alaskans are cool and wants to know why.  That is a much better interpretation.  All Alaskans should take a little pride in that.
     I wonder what other blogs might have shown up with that search.  Well, there's a way to find out, and a search with those words shows this blog is seventh on the list.  Back to earth.  I only hope those looking to find out why weren't disappointed with what they found.
     The whole episode reminded me of an experience at sea.  Two years ago I ventured out onto the North Pacific Ocean on the brigantine Kai Sei to study plastic in the north Pacific gyre.  Most of the crew members were in their 20s.  Another fellow from Hawaii and I were at the other end of that scale, spooking 70. Coincidentally we both had sons aboard.
     All these young people were quite surprised to learn I liked Lady Gaga.  I could tell by their smiles they thought it was at best unusual and at worst, maybe a little strange.  Tough.  I made no pretense and a few of them recognized it as simply an appreciation of a person and her music.
     That said, one clear and sunny day I was at the helm steering the boat over waves not big, but larger than we had experienced so far.  It was that kind of joyous day where I plugged my iPhone into my ears and pretty soon I was rocking and rolling with the boat and singing louder than I thought and pretty much unaware of anything but the sea, the ship and Lady Gaga.
     After a time lost in the joy of sea and the music, I looked up to see people walking by with smirks on their faces, or laughing at this crazy old man rocking out singing Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" at the helm of a 151-foot tall ship.
    The cook finally walked up to me, insisted I remove my earphones, and then said to me, "man, you are cool."  I remember feeling a little bit of a blush in my cheeks, being rather taken aback about that.  But I was on a roll.
     Being full of myself at the moment, I looked at him and with all the seriousness I could summon, I told him, "Adam, I am the definition of cool." 
     Fortunately he took it in the same sense it was given and we both had a good laugh over that.
     Because, you know what? The truth is, if you have to say it yourself, you probably aren't.

Real men use yellow machinery

When the snow load gets too heavy you have to shovel the roof.

In the post below about the media frenzy of an approaching winter storm, I made a little fun of an Alaska newspaper that thought it was vital to feature a story essentially telling Alaskans how to shovel snow.

Instead of that ridiculous story, the paper could have gone into what Alaskans use and how they use what they have to move snow.

Now that's snowblower.  Four hundred fifty four cubic inches of 
Chevrolet power will move a lot of snow. 

Mind you this comes from a person who lived for almost 20 years in the U.S. city that traditionally reports the highest winter snowfall in North America.  One year while I was there, Valdez, Alaska, received 47 feet of snow.  My dog walked across the snow berm between houses and curled up on the neighbor's roof next to the chimney for the warmth.  A friend of mine kept a BB gun close to his front door because with the snow halfway up his picture window, the neighbor's dog kept coming over and lifting his leg on it.

Just 20 miles away is a mountain pass that one year received the deepest snowfall ever recorded, more than 900 inches in one winter.

This snowfall is caused by a unique geography where the high massif of the Chugach Mountains rises immediately from the ocean shoreline.  Warm, moist air moving north from the Gulf of Alaska hits those mountains and stalls.  The moisture cools rapidly and releases the huge snowfalls in winter.  Those huge snowfalls have also formed a landscape littered with glaciers.

Now, given snowfalls as deep as 4 feet in 24 hours, the standard snow shovel is a fairly useless tool.  In the video above workers are using a Valdez snow scoop.  Those are made by a local sheet metal shop and cost upwards of $100.  But, they handle huge amounts of snow.  Some places with flat roofs even leave a snowblower up there all winter. 

How do they prepare?  For one thing, new houses have to be built with roofs able to handle a snow load of 120 pounds per square foot.  When subdivisions are laid out they have to leave a certain amount of land vacant for storing snow from street plowing in winter. When you build a house, you put doors and first-floor windows on the gable sides.  If you put them under the eaves you have a world of trouble when snow slides off the roof. When I built my house, I placed it on the lot as close to the street as zoning would allow.  What this did is leave me the shortest possible driveway to shovel, only about 10 feet longer than a pickup truck. And, speaking of those, you won't see many pickup trucks with snowplows on them because they just aren't strong enough to handle a big snow.  Even the folks who plow driveways, use those big Caterpillar front-end loaders.  Road graders and front-end loaders are used for the main roads as well.  

Yellow machinery!  If you don't know what that is, the next time you pass some road construction or excavation work going on,  look at the equipment.  And awful lot of it will be painted the ubiquitous yellow of the Caterpillar trademark for its heavy machinery.  And that earth moving machinery can also move snow.  Just to be fair in mentioning yellow machinery, I shouldn't leave out DeWalt power tools, another reliable Alaska favorite, but as far as I know it doesn't move snow.  Last summer though, I did observe a guy using a DeWalt sawzall to dig a trench.

As for personal snow removal, besides the Valdez snow scoops, snowblowers work, but you have to buy the big ones, the expensive ones, because the little ones just won't do the job.  The only alternative is to have half a dozen children, so you have a ready and replaceable supply of shovelers.  Incidentally I know the woman who made the video and she raised three husky sons, but probably won't admit she did it just for the snow shoveling.

Which brings us to the photograph.  Now, there is a man's snow blower.  Tim the Tool Man would be envious.  And, of course, whether on purpose or not, it is painted yellow.  According to the fellow who made it, it is powered by a 454-cubic-inch Chevrolet engine.  The cooling fan blows from front to back,  pushing engine air onto the driver for some warmth.  Cooling liquid flows through the handle bar for heating the handler's hands.  It is loud enough for neighbors to complain and demands use of ear protection.  It also will throw snow into next month.  It was not built by an Alaskan, but I would bet someone out there somewhere has built something like it.

And, what it does is bring heavy-duty, yellow, snow-removal equipment to a personal level.  The unique ways people find to move snow would have been a much more valuable news story for sure. More power! Always, more power!

The Gaga is a Lady

She is just about in the middle of the photo with a black outfit and big blonde hair.

There's no sense belaboring this subject.

Yes I was there.

Last February when I was handed my pink slip, people asked me what I was going to do.  For lack of a better answer I told them I am going to the Lady Gaga concert.

This week I went.

I laughed, I cried, I sang along, I cheered, I stood, I even hesitantly raised a paw.

When it was over, I met and then shared a drink and a kiss with a beautiful woman.

It doesn't get any better than that for a 70-year-old lil monster.

OMG it's going to snow in winter: The frenzy before the storm

As opposed to the calm of the cliche.  Wow. If you watched the news this morning you would think the end of the world was approaching.  A snowstorm in winter, imagine that!

This photo was taken at our house in Valdez, 30 hours into a
36-hour snowfall that eventually totaled 51 inches.  My son
was about 5 feet tall at a time and when the snow started,
there was less than a foot on the ground.  It didn't even close
the schools.  He had just finished shoveling off that porch
roof which is why he was warm enough to take off his coat.

First a qualification.  Over the years Alaskans learn not to go all superlative on folks who talk about cold and storms where they live.  Of course, Alaskans have weathered worse, but that doesn't really lessen what others are experiencing with their storms Outside.

Instead we listen smugly knowing we could point out colder temperatures, higher winds, deeper snow than anything those folks are complaining about, but we try not to point it out.  It doesn't help and the listeners often resent you for saying it.  Other places aren't prepared as well,  their cities don’t have the equipment to deal with it, and the people themselves spend most of their lives indoors, move in cars, don't much live with the reality of climate affecting their lives and perhaps don't think that much about being prepared for serious weather conditions, at least until the last minute.

All that being a given, good grief.  Watching CNN this morning, all they are talking about is this approaching storm BEFORE IT HAPPENS.  It has barely started, people,  there is other news and frankly it is winter and  generally it is probably going to snow at some point.  Government officials on TV telling people all the warnings about impending storms, things most people have known for their lifetimes,  stock up on food,  stay home,  the snow is heavy and wet so be careful shoveling (is there ever a snowstorm in the Lower 48 where some poor soul doesn't suffer a heart attack with a shovel in his hand?)

This stuff happens.  These shrill warnings by of oh-so-sympathetic  talking heads on the 24-hour news cycle, people who probably went to work this morning in designer clothes rather than something unstylish but made for cold weather, have jumped on the approaching storm, reporting news before it happens when it is something people should be and probably are intelligent enough to take it in stride, deal with it and move on without their interference.

This storm is supposed to hit the northeast.  You have to wonder if it would get this much coverage if it were to happen, say, in North Dakota where they have real winter weather instead of to the East Coast where all the myopic talking heads broadcast from.  Granted potentially it probably affects more people so on that level it is probably more newsworthy, however across the country, no matter how bad this storm  becomes, there are millions of people who have already in their lives experienced a lot worse.  Ignoring my own advice,  I have lived and functioned in temperatures around 45 below zero, snowfalls exceeding four feet in 24 hours,  winds that reach hurricane force on the warning scale and we go through it without faux concern from talking beauties on CNN. Also, in Alaska, no matter what I personally might have experienced, someone in Alaska has experienced worse.  It is something you learn after a while. So, there East Coast broadcasters, I just went all superlative on your ass. 

It has always bothered me when news people become so self-important that they reach a point when they feel they have to advise people rather than simply inform.  One of the worst examples I have come across happened a few years ago on a day when I went to work at the newspaper and saw that the big display on the paper's website was about how to shovel snow.  One of those things you say way too loud into a silence: "Wow now there's news, teaching Alaskans how to hold a snow shovel."   Not only that but it was accompanied by photos of one of those snow shovels with ergonomically perfect handles.  I had seen those shovels before,  in garbage cans around town after they broke under the loads.  The point is that some reporter and probably a couple of editors thought it was important front page news to teach Alaskans how to hold a snow shovel.  Good grief. 

Anyway, the news today is:  It is going to snow in winter.  You can tell by all the courageous reporters standing outside with a  few flakes flying around them essentially to tell people it is snowing. And, speaking of advice, those reporters are standing out braving the snow and wind, advising people to stay indoors.  Why would anyone take advice from someone stupid enough to stand out in the storm he's advising people not to go out into?  It's all for the drama after all, isn't it?

Frankly does anybody need to be told by a woman more concerned about her makeup and wardrobe on screen who takes it as her mission to condescendingly advise her apparently totally clueless audience on how to deal with a snowstorm in winter.  Please, where is the credibility?  Frankly I would guess most of the people they are talking to know perfectly well how to deal with a snowstorm.

Oh, boy there will be special live all-night coverage of the storm beginning at midnight. 

And then, there's this from my favorite Tweeter: Bronx Zoo's Cobra ‏@BronxZoosCobra

Anybody hear what the weather's gonna be like this weekend?

And, please.  Nothing I have said here is in any way meant to minimize the force of the storm or the danger, nor to make fun of the people who are experiencing it.  Believe me, we who have been there understand fully and are with you in spirit.

The invasion of the redpolls is on!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Articles addresses superflights and causes for alterations in irruptive migration by birds including redpolls. 2/13

BIG UPDATE:  Last week as mentioned below I asked people on the Audubon website if anyone else was seeing unusually large numbers of redpolls this year. There have been several responses along with some good advice and a wonderful rescue story.  I added them below with the newer ones at the top.  Polling Hollywood now for invasion of the redpolls movie. (I boldfaced the advice)

Original blog post:

This has become fun, if expensive.  The birds, mostly common redpolls went through 40 pounds of sunflower seeds in a week.  That's not an exaggeration.  I opened one a week ago Thursday and Thursday this week I had to buy another one and open it immediately to keep up with them.  

They pretty much empty five feeders in about 24 hours. That's three of them in the picture.  Of the other two one is a duplicate of the one with the red top and the other holds more than twice what that red one holds.

At times if I could count them I bet there are more than 100 in the yard.

This is more than I have ever seen.  Over the years I've noticed there are lots one year and hardly any the next.  For a while I thought they alternated years,  but then went through three or four where there were very few.  Then this year they are overwhelming.

I wondered if I am alone and feeding every redpoll in Alaska, so I joined an Alaska Audubon bulletin board and asked if anyone was experiencing the same thing.  So far I heard from people in Soldotna, Talkeetna, Homer and south Anchorage and all report unusually large numbers of redpolls at feeders this year.  No one has offered a good theory so far as to why.

I had one thought.  Perhaps the crappy summer we had stunted the growth of whatever they usually eat in winter and so they are having trouble finding feed in the wild.  Another thought is the crappy summer somehow allowed for a greater survival rate among them and as more chicks survived, more are thus coming to the feeders.  Hmm, just checking on something.  Maybe it's global warming.  Maybe they migrate and because of new climate changes, they are staying all winter.  Hang on, going to look that up.

A partial answer from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Common Redpolls are active foragers that travel in busy flocks. Look for them feeding on catkins in birch trees or visiting feeders in winter. These small finches of the Arctic tundra and boreal forest migrate erratically, and they occasionally show up in large numbers as far south as the central U.S. During such irruption years, redpolls often congregate at bird feeders (particularly thistle or nyjer seed), allowing delightfully close looks.

So, there's the answer.  They migrate erratically.  Sometimes they fly south, sometimes they don't.  Now you have to wonder what triggers either action, and it does indicate warming could have an effect.  If it stays warmer here that may be what keeps them  It's good enough for me, perhaps a combination of high survival rate and one of those years when they erratically stay in the north. 

Now I wonder if I could somehow shift the expense of these sunflower seeds to someone who usually feeds them in the Lower 48. Probably not, but donations are welcomed.

A news story February 13.

The answer might be in this article about superflights from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Redpolls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

HERE ARE SOME OF THE AUDUBON RESPONSES:

QUICK UPDATE: Forty pound bags of black oil sunflower seeds are $4 cheaper at 3 Bears than they are at Walmart.  Same Alaska brand.  $33 and change.

I believe this is a Leucistic Redpoll. It was amongst the Common Redpolls that frequent my bird feeders on a daily basis.  Here's the link.  
--South Anchorage, mid hillside 2/8

The redpolls here in Nikiski seem to be increasing in numbers. Plus I'm still getting lots of chickadees (black capped and boreal) and nuthatches. Not as many Grosbeaks and gray jays, but I'm sure they will come back soon.
-- Nikiski 2/8

Thanks for continuing the conversation about the Red Polls, as I find this very interesting, especially since the Red Polls are across such a large territory - Anchorage to Talkeetna.

 The Red Polls did come back to our south Anchorage feeders. They were gone for two days, then the snow hit and they are back at the feeders. However, there's not the same numbers as before when they were a mob. 

-- south Anchorage 2/8

I was gone for four days and of course the feeders were down to dust when I came back.  Filled them this morning and the redpolls are back in big numbers again.
-- Tim 2/8

Back in the 70's and 80's we used to have flocks of redpolls at our bird feeders and I literally haven't seen one since -- until this year. This past week we've had lots of them. I don't have a clue … but I'm glad you're on it. 

-- East Anchorage  2/3

The best price on Black-oiled Sunflower Seeds, currently, is @ 3 Bears. Also best to buy a large bag of mixed seed for redpolls, as they will eat the millet. Avoid mixes with those large, striped sunflower seeds- nobody eats those!

 -Talkeetna Robin  2/4

Two days ago I went out onto the porch to put out yet more seed in the afternoon & found a juvenile female redpoll laying on her back on the snow on top of the flat fuel tank at the end of the porch,which serves as a feeder. I thought she was dead but when I started to pick her up her legs kicked a little. I gently picked her up and brought her into the cabin. She was clearly dazed, though I had been inside for the prior 2 hours and had not heard a window hit. Plus I have black screens on the outsides of all my windows so even if the birds fly into a window, they see the screen and swing their feet up and hang from it for a second before flying away.

I gave the bird a few drops of water with an eyedropper, which she drank eagerly. I set her in a small animal cage in a  back room and left her quiet for an hour.

The sun was due to set in a 1/2 hour when I checked on her. She would need to acclimate to the cold again to be set loose for the night, so I set the cage on a table on the porch. I put a handful of seeds in the cage and stood watching. She hopped around the cage and when she came upon the seed she began to eat. I eased the lid off the cage and in a few moments she looked up and then flew out and off to the forest.

Since then she has been back with the flock, but whenever they all fly away, she stays, calmly eating seed while I am nearby. I know it's her because a few feathers on her head were bent out of shape by whatever she hit, and she has a gold-colored poll instead of red, which I learned a few years ago, when I did research on redpolls when writing a column about them for The Talkeetna Good Times, denotes a juvenile bird. This girl seems to have lost some of her fear of me.

There is a squirrel which jumps onto the feeders and leaps at the birds and I wonder if it leaped at the flock while they were feeding and this female flew into the wall and knocked herself out. I'm just glad she re-cooperated and seems to see me as a helper, perhaps. 
-- Talkeetna Robin 2/4

Thanks for the comment and the story.  I have those hawk sillouettes on my windows and they still hit it.  And I have seen squirrels do exactly what you described.
-- Tim

I've tried everything too, and the mesh screen on the outside of the window works best. Only thing is I can't take photos through it. I've put up streamers, hawk silhouettes, paint daubs, & plastic owls & the mesh finally stopped window fatalities. That's why I think this redpoll flew into the wall -- especially since I did not hear a window hit. She still greets me on a feeder each morning now and hangs around a little while after the others fly to the trees. My pal.

Cheers,

Robin Song  2/5

Is the feeding frenzy over for the Red Polls? We haven't seen any Red Polls since Sunday here in south Anchorage. The birds had been emptying the feeders about every two days. Yesterday there was only one or two birds at a time. I'm wondering where they went and who still has Red Polls at their feeders?  
-- South Anchorage 2/5

For a few days our numbers were down, but they started going back up today.  
-- Homer  2/5

They are still showing up at my feeders in Nikiski.  
-- Nikiski 2/5

We have about 50-100 daily, not an unusual amount but not every year amount.

 -- Anchorage  2/6

Last week, while driving north on Minnesota near Tudor in Anchorage, a large
 flock of redpolls flew over. While I know they are more common in town this
 year, this flock was unusually large.I am guessing about 200 birds. So,
there may be more in town than one thinks. 
-- Anchorage

We've had up to 65 or more Common Redpolls at our feeder, whereas in previous years we've had only one or two.  A bonanza year for redpolls at feeders. 
--- Homer 

  We just started with bird feeders about 4 weeks ago.  First some Arctic Blend and then a little thistle to bring those dang Pine Siskins in (it didn't work).  Started with two feeders, one about 8 inches high and one about 16 inches high.  
-- Anchorage

Yes-about 70 redpolls here in the Talkeetna area. Usually I have around 25 at my feeders and they don't come in to the feeders until mid Feb. This winter I started out with 8 redpolls coming in with 12 Pine Grosbeaks back in Nov. The flock slowly increased to its present size by mid Jan. The PG flock numbers around 20 birds. Just had a Shrike here 2 days ago and a Sharp-shinned Hawk does a fly-by every once in awhile. 

Black-capped Chickadee flock is down about 1/2 this winter, numbering around  25 birds.

I put out mixed seed for the redpolls to slow down their consumption of sunflower seeds. Happy little birds! 
-- Talkeetna

 Yes! I'm in the south end of Anchorage. We started out with about 20 birds, now it's a mob scene at the front and back yard feeders several times a day and ran through two 10 lb bags quickly.  My husband couldn't find plain sunflower seeds at two stores in town and ended up buying a mix of millet, cracked corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds. Corn and millet are scattered everywhere. Don't understand why stores here carry mixes like this. Is millet good for anything? Am I missing something? I've always wondered.
 
-- Anchorage


A NOTE:  If anyone else can't find sunflower seeds, while I hesitate to promote Walmart, they do carry 40-pound bags (and also smaller ones).  They have a variety of other feeds as well and they at least sell the Alaska brand.  Also note the message from Talkeetna above.  Putting out mixed feed slows down the consumption of sunflower seeds.

It took just slightly over two weeks for the birds (mostly Redpolls, but a few Nuthatches and BCCHs) to empty the feeders the first time I filled them.  It took about a week for the birds to empty the feeders the second time I filled them.  Then about four days...now it's done to about two days. 
-- Anchorage



The Blacked-capped Chickadees still are around a bit, but the Nuthatches seem to have "been driven off" perhaps.

I won't complain though...it's a wonderful Sunday morning sipping coffee and watching the Redpolls mob the feeders.

I bet the word "Redpoll" is mentioned 25 times a day in my house these days. 
-- Anchorage

I have 100-200 in my yard feeders in Soldotna.  This is one of the higher years (I have had 300 at one time) and they just showed up a week or two ago,  
-- Soldotna

If anyone is interested, here are my better bird photos this winter.