Grosbeaks and Orioles

Look who's back. Tuesday I saw my first Rose-breasted Grosbeak the the feeders. Look at that beak! Chomp!


Thursday the Orioles showed up. We put the feeders out one or two days ago. Good timing. Look at this bird. He KNOWS he looks good. At the end of the day I went along on our new traditional Thursday at 3:00 hike. Paul spotted a blue headed Vireo and I got a good look too. There were many chipping sparrows and song sparrows but we could hear clay-colored sparrows and field sparrows. The clay colored make a buzz-buzz-buzz call that you might mistake for an insect. The field sparrows make a call that our former director Tom Anderson described as someone dropping a ping pong ball. It is a series of rapidly ascending notes and the frequency between them increases as well. I eventually saw the clay colored sparrow and probably saw the field sparrow. Paul saw one and I got my binoculars on it but I could never have told what it was from the look I got so I'm not counting it. There will be plenty of opportunities to see field sparrows.

2008 Running Bird Tally
88 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
89 Baltimore Oriole
90 Blue-headed Vireo
91 Clay Colored Sparrow