Date: 4/18/25 4:25 pm From: Liz Pease <lizpease...> Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] April 18, 205, Newton (NH): Did folks notice that a lot of juncos had departed, yesterday?
Still here today in Salisbury, though definitely in smaller numbers.
Thanks for inspiring me to go take a close look Matt!
Liz Pease
<lizpease...>
Salisbury MA
On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 6:34 PM Dorothy Anderson <
<andersondorothy72...> wrote:
> Mine are still here and for the first time are taking seeds right out of
> the feeder.
> On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM Aimée Sands <amsproductions...>
> wrote:
>
>> You’re right and I hadn’t noticed! The juncoes are suddenly gone! It
>> seemed they were here for an exceptionally long time. And it does seem
>> they left the day the white throated sparrow arrived here in JP.
>> Aimée Sands
>>
>> On Apr 18, 2025, at 9:01 AM, Matt S. <accipiter22...> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> We've had at least 10 juncos, give or take, in our yard all winter,
>> sometimes much more. For the past six weeks or so they've been singing,
>> and the past few weeks it's been a constant high-pitched trilling roar. It
>> makes the yard more exciting, I think. Yesterday when I stepped outside I
>> noticed a complete silence, accented by the fact that even the cardinals
>> and various finches weren't singing either. I figured there was a predator
>> nearby, as I went about my yard, some things called here or there, but no
>> juncos. The absence of their song was loud, if that makes sense. The
>> world seemed a little stiller without their song. I noticed a couple were
>> still here, pursuing each other aggressively around the yard as they've
>> been doing, but through the several hours I was outside I only noticed a
>> couple bars of song from them. Anyone else have their yard juncos ride
>> out on the warm air the last few days?
>>
>> I always enjoy juncos, when I was young and still learning about birds, I
>> thought it was interesting that southward migration included birds that
>> came south to New England for the winter. Juncos were a pretty easy ID,
>> even for a kid, and a book I read said that Native American populations in
>> the area called them snowbirds, since they usually portended winter. I
>> would track how many weeks they arrived before first snow hit. I was
>> equally excited by white-throated sparrows coming in, but I don't recall
>> them in the kind of numbers we had juncos.
>>
>> Safe travels friends!
>>
>> Matt S
>> Newton, NH
>> <Accipiter22...>
>>
>>
>>
