Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo Blue jays, drawn in by peanuts in the shell, have added a touch of color during what has otherwise been a dull winter so far at the bird feeders at Six Mile Lake in northern Dickinson County.

If local observations are any indication, this so far has been one of the poorest in terms of birds at the feeders in the 10 winters I have spent here.

The usual all-year resident birds remain. Black-capped chickadees in abundance, with their cheerful chatter. Noisy blue jays and common crows, both drawn in by peanuts in the shell. Red- and white-breasted nuthatches. And the woodpeckers — hairy and downy, red-bellied and the impressive pileated. Plus, of course, mourning doves.

Yet the other winter birds remain mostly absent.

A few tree sparrows make regular appearances. This is our most common winter sparrow, a bird that nests in the arctic tundra and migrates here to take advantage of the more “temporate” climate. It has a rusty cap and eye stripe and a dark spot on its breast, along with a bill that’s black above and yellow below.

American goldfinches can be heard, if not seen. Others in the Upper Peninsula seem to have them in abundance, though, so I figure it’s a matter of not having the nyger seed feeder out yet.

Northern cardinals have been plentiful elsewhere, if the Upper Peninsula Birding Facebook page is any indication. But they seem to prefer more urban living — I wonder if that all-red color makes them more conspicuous to predators out in the country — so we rarely get them at Six Mile Lake.

But no purple finches, no evening or pine grosbeaks, no pine siskins, no Bohemian waxwings, no redpolls, no red or white-winged crossbills, although flocks of the latter have been seen in northern Wisconsin.

It’s been disappointing, though not completely unexpected. The annual Winter Finch Forecast released in late September indicated an abundant cone and berry crops to the north and west in Canada that could keep the birds in the boreal forest regions, at least while the food supply lasted.

But there had been hope for some movement in the western Great Lakes region due to spruce budworm outbreaks. Alas, not so far, at least not this far.

A check of the Birding Wisconsin Facebook page didn’t show much different results, except to the south, and it was more summer birds that have unexpectedly stuck around than any of the potential winter visitors.

A local reader, Tony Welch, wrote to say they still have four common grackles that have been coming to their Quinnesec home every couple days since about Thanksgiving.

But in winter, you long for that touch of color the redpolls and grosbeaks bring against a backdrop of gray, brown and white.

At least there’s been one winter avian delight that’s been reliably spotted this year. The farm field on the north side of M-69 just east of the North Dickinson County School in Felch Township regularly has a huge flock of tiny snow buntings, swirling around before settling down to feed in the grass.

This is the time of year to look for these sparrow-like birds — non-breeding males are mostly white with black on their wings and tails and a touch of rust on their head and shoulders; females have more rusty streaks on back and breast. They can best be seen on roadsides, shorelines or in fields.

Like the tree sparrows, snow buntings nest in the high arctic, according to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website, https://www.allaboutbirds.org. Males in breeding season rub off the worn edges of the rusty feathers, becoming mostly white with black bills. The breeding females do retain some of the brown color and streaking, to better blend in as a ground nester.

Given their size and shifting movement, snow buntings have proven challenging to photograph. But I’ll keep trying.

Readers who are seeing anything different are encouraged to write in and tell me about it at the email listed below.

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.