This seems to be a good year in southern British Columbia for irruptive winter finches. Siskins, grosbeaks, and redpolls have irrupted from their normal wintering grounds in search of food. These birds are mainly seed eaters, although they also need to consume some grit to serve as a digestive aid.
Finches find a ready source of grit (and salt) on our winter roads—with some obvious consequences. Indeed, in parts of BC, winter finches are referred to as grille birds owing to the large numbers that collect on the grilles of moving vehicles.
I watched such a drama while on the drive over Kootenay Pass to visit the raptors of the Creston flats. When finches gather on the road, ravens gather in the trees above. The ravens know something that the finches apparently do not: there will soon be carnage.
A mixed flock of siskins and redpolls forages on the highway. Even in this picture, there are corpses.
As expected, a vehicle drives through their midst.
There is momentary agitation, but soon the birds settle back to foraging in the same spot.
Everybirdy just ignores the corpses. Apparently none stop, ponder, and say (to lift a caption from a Farside cartoon): “And now Edgar’s gone…something’s going on around here.”
