Big spring for Evening Grosbeaks in Canon City area

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I usually get Evening Grosbeaks at my feeders in the spring while many lowland areas only see them in the winter. This year was a big year for them with hundreds around Canon City and Florence including several dozen at least in my neighborhood. They were going through a lot of seed (I only feed safflower when the bears are out but they seem to love it) so I was buying it by the 25 lb bag at a feed store. Fyi, that is a Pine Siskin sharing the feeder in the top pic demonstrating how large these Evening Grosbeak are (which translates into how much they eat especially when there are 6-10 of them at your feeders at a time).

The number of Evening Grosbeaks has steadily decreased in the past 10 days as birds have presumably moved into their upland coniferous habitats documented in the Colo Breeding Bird Atlas I as preferred by them in this state. For the past 3 days including this morning I have only seen 2 birds, a male and female, at my feeders. It is time for them to be in their breeding areas and building nests so I hope these leave soon. If I am fortunate they will bring their offspring back with them to feed them at my feeders which they have only done twice. SeEtta

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