What kind of year for winter finches? What’s a winter finch?

By Fred Wooley Early September, I saw my first-of-the-season Red-breasted Nuthatch, one of my favorite birds.  Diminutive compared to our more common year-round White-breasted Nuthatch, the Red-breasted is also set apart by its rusty-red chest and distinctive eye stripe and the fact that it spends a bit more time on branches than the trunk-clinging White-breasted. As fall moves ...