In Sullivan County Common Redpoll in December is rather rare. In most irruption years a few show up in late December and our major influx occurs at the beginning of the year, usually the first week of January. In our most recent irruption, redpolls began showing up the first week of December 2012. Their numbers fluctuated through the month, with mostly single digits reported and with a high of 30 reported in one day. A major influx occurred the first week of January 2013 resulting in our biggest irruption in my recollection. If there was a bigger irruption in our area, it was before my time and not documented in ebird. We have been pretty much without redpolls for several years now. My last record was January 2015. Why do I mention this? As of today, I have already reported 74 Common Redpolls this week, with a high count of 42 at one location. This exceeds my earliest, high counts by a third and much earlier in the month. With a reliable forecast for an irruption year already in place, this could be our biggest irruption ever! If anything like the last, everyone should get them at their feeders this winter. Scotty, keep those thistle feeders full, you’re gonna have company!
PS: we have never had a Hoary Redpoll report in the month of December. The first one was reported recently in Vermont, and there are quite a few in the St. Lawrence River valley in Canada. If a huge influx of Common Redpoll occurs, we may be looking for our first December record of Hoary. BTW, we should get some in January either way!
Bashakill Birder 