...but some interesting things about this species. Norman van Swelm
shared some recoveries of banded redpolls on the ID Frontiers list this
morning. A redpoll banded in 9/98 in Norway was found 11/02 in China.
One banded in China 10/01 was retrapped in Norway 2/03. A 1983 article
reports a recovery in eastern Russia of a bird banded in Michigan. So
these birds really get around.
        In the Mar 2003 issue of The Kingbird, the New York counterpart of the
Ohio Cardinal, appeared a fascinating article about redpolls wintering
in northern New York's snow belt in 2001-02. "Snow Burrowing by Common
Redpolls" by J. Collins and J. Peterson offers careful observations of
these birds bathing in snow, burrowing snow caves for roosting,
and--seemingly playfully--making long tunnels and channels in snow. The
authors suggest bathing improves the insulating qualities of feathers,
and caves and tunnels promote heat conservation, and also that there
appeared to be social functions to some of these activities.
        Maybe the advancing cold front will bring enough snow to the redpolls
in Ohio's snow-belt counties that local observers can look for some of
these activities and let us know what they see.
        In a related matter, several folks have mentioned that species of open
fields like longspurs and snow buntings have gotten harder to find. It
would be interesting to find if this is simply because of the absence of
snow. With snow cover, these birds often gravitate to spots where wind,
etc., have uncovered open ground---blow-outs, roadsides, and so on,
making them easier to detect. I've looked at a snow-free fields with
innumerable longspurs or buntings in them, and not noticed any until
they took flight. These birds are probably still around; one way to test
might be to throw out some cracked corn to see what happens.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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