Last of the Winter’s Redpolls

 On my last morning in Hamilton–a cold one!–I took Margie and Rich up on their generous invitation to drop by for a little feeder watching. The air was thin and the wind strong, but an Eastern Phoebe was singing on the nearby creek, and Common Grackles were singing and dancing from the tops of the tall conifers.

But I was there to see one species, Common Redpoll.

On Sunday I’d been so surprised by April redpolls that I hadn’t even tried to take any pictures, but yesterday I interrupted my admiration of this last of the winter’s lingerer to snap a distant photo or two. This is a romantic species for me, bound up in memory with the deep snows and cold winds of a childhood now 30 years past; to find them on a bright day in mid-April was startling, and to watch this one yesterday as it fed with American Goldfinches, Downy Woodpeckers, Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, and Song and American Tree Sparrows was like stepping back into my early days of birding in the midwest.