There are only a handful so far, but the Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows have started to arrive in my backyard—a sure sign that colder weather is not far away!
The juncos that show up in southern Wisconsin each winter spend the whole breeding season in Canada or in far northern Wisconsin, and then they fly further south for winter. In the some of the western and New England states they can be found all year-round.
If I toss seed on the ground for them now, the chipmunks will just vacuum it up. Once we’ve had a hard freeze and some colder days, the chipmunks will disappear into their winter homes and it will be safe to scatter seed into the grass and under some of my shrubs for those ground-feeding juncos. In the meantime, they’ll just have to join the finches and the other songbirds at the platform feeder.