Our December 2009 issue, featuring a beautiful shot of a Common Redpoll by photographer Marie Read, is now available on our website. The issue will go on newsstands November 3. Subscribers should be finding their copies in their mailboxes right about now.

Winter surprises is the theme of the issue, and by that we mean surprising winter finches, surprising winter hotspots, and the surprisingly large number of good bird books published this year. All are featured in the issue -- along with an article about THE place to be come springtime, when the birds fly north again.

Before I jump right in, though, an announcement:

The December 2009 issue contains our second Readers' Favorites Survey. In the first, we asked for your favorite places to see eagles. This time around, we're asking for your favorite places to watch warblers. Tell us before November 25, and just like last time, we'll enter your name in a drawing for a Nikon Monarch 8x36 binocular. Don't miss it!

Winter finches

In "On the Move," Contributing Editor Paul Kerlinger profiles the Pine Siskin, Common Redpoll, Hoary Redpoll, Purple Finch, Evening Grosbeak, Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, and White-winged Crossbill -- winter finches that make those unpredictable winter movements called irruptions. Paul explains why the birds might show up in your backyard one winter and remain in their nesting areas the next (subscribers only).

In "Gone Astray," Anne Marie Johnson describes the most conspicuous and perhaps the most beloved of the winter finches -- the Evening Grosbeak -- and relates how investigators at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have charted the bird's sudden and mysterious decline using counts submitted by Project FeederWatch participants in the U.S. and Canada (subscribers only).

And in Birding Briefs, we present a detailed summary of which winter finches are expected to appear where this year. That's in addition to newsy reports about the Mississippi Kites that are now breeding in New England and about the dramatic toll West Nile virus has taken on California's Yellow-billed Magpie.

Winter hotspots

Looking for a great place to go birding this winter? In Hotspots Near You in this issue, four knowledgeable local birdwatchers describe four:

• Journalist and bird photographer William Jobes tells what you need to know about the birds at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, New Jersey.
• Tom Flinn, a volunteer migration monitor, writes about finding birds at Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, Ontario.
• Matthew Brooks, education outreach specialist for Tucson Audubon, describes the wonderful Sweetwater Wetlands outside Tucson.
• And Catherine Waters, president of Western Field Ornithologists, tells about a hotspot she visits year-round: Whittier Narrows Recreation Area in South El Monte, California.
  

Their four entries bring the number of destinations we've profiled in "Hotspots Near You" up to 80. You can find each and every one plotted on our cool, new map.

Winter reading

Wasn't 2009 a great year for bird books? The list of new titles that belong in your library is long, indeed. In "Bookshelf" in the December 2009 issue, we offer a roundup of our favorite new books -- a photographic guide to shorebirds, Brian Small's guide to North American birds, field guides to the birds of South America and East Asia, a collection of paintings by Lars Jonsson, a love story about an owl named Wesley, and much, much more, even a book by David Allen Sibley that's not about birds.

And last but not least, that spring destination

In "Island Stopover," birder and talented writer Steve Betchkal describes birdwatching on the Dry Tortugas (subscribers only). Located in the Gulf of Mexico 70 miles from Key West, the island park is the only place in the U.S. where Sooty Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Noddy, and Masked Booby all nest, and it's good for Caribbean strays, but it's best known as a magnet for warblers, tanagers, buntings, and other migrating songbirds. What's more, it's sunny and warm.

Enjoy the issue, and please let me know how you like it! --C.H.

Read more about Birder's World Readers' Favorites Surveys.

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter! 

Become a fan of Birder's World on Facebook.