REDPOLL RAMBLINGS by D ~ G- Stewart 
     
    
   
   
    
     A lot of you I’m sure Were getting redpolls at your feeders 
     
     this winter. For your information, here are a few quotes about 
     
     this welcome addition to our usual winter flocks of chickadees and 
     
     other birds. 
     
    

    
     Quoting from Peter Whelan’s column in the Toronto Globe and 
     
     Mail of January 29th: "Fittingly in the cold, redpolls irrupting 
     
     from the Arctic are the birds of this winter. They flocked to 
     
     feeders across most of southern Canada. These pink-breasted angel- 
     
     faced cuties proved tough. They were seen driving goldfinches off 
     
     the little black niger seeds that both relish and driving the 
     
     chickadees off suet feeders. In my Toronto back yard one Common 
     
     Redpoll squeezed a circle of respect around itself on a feeding 
     
     shelf from eight larger House Finches. Any finch Venturing close 
     
     was driven back with a gape—billed threat. 
     
    

    
     Redpolls suddenly blanketed the feeders of Moncton, N.B., ‘100 
     
     to 200 on any offering niger seed,’ Jim Edsell said. ‘It is about 
     
    
   
   
    
     the date here when they finish off the natural food and move into 
     
     feeders.’ 
     
    
   
   
    
     At ~30 in Prince Albert, Sas- 
     
     katchewan, resourceful redpolls had 
     
     their morning feed at Bob 
     
     Luterbach’s feeder, then sheltered 
     
     by diving head—first into 20 
     
     centimetres of snow on a south- 
     
     facing slope. ‘They stayed there 
     
     maybe half an hour, some with their 
     
     tails and backs showing, then came 
     
     out.’ Last winter, he saw redpolls 
     
     dive into snow banks for the night 
     
     in another local yard." 
     
    

    
     The Birders Handbook by Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye has EU] 
     
     article on Winter Feeding by redpolls and crossbills which I am 
     
     quoting in part: "One of the most important adaptations enabling 
     
     redpolls and crossbills to cope with the energy demands imposed by 
     
     severe arctic and subarctic winters is a structure that is somewhat 
     
     analogous to the substantial crop of gallinaceous birds. The 
     
     structure is a partially bilobed pocket situated about midway down 
     
     the neck, technically an ‘esophageal diverticulum.’ The pocket is 
     
     used to store seeds, especially toward nightfall and during 
     
     particularly severe weather. The ‘extra’ food helps carry the bird 
     
     through low nighttime temperatures and permits energy to be saved 
     
     during bad Weather by reducing foraging time and allowing the bird 
     
     to ‘feed’ while resting in a sheltered spot. 
     
    

    
     Redpolls appear to be able to survive colder temperatures than 
     
     any other songbirds that have been studied in detail. Large birds, 
     
     of course, have a great advantage in saving heat because they have 
     
     a relatively small surface area for their volume. Birds a large as 
     
     ptarmigans and as small as snow buntings may borrow into loose snow 
     
     to sleep. Two feet down in the snow the temperature can be 25°F