Pine Grosbeak, female, looked at
the Corgis, our Phoebe, left, and Chanel, her mother, rightAfter talking all last week about "irruptive species" and telling people to be on the lookout since this seems to be a banner year for them, we took our own advice. While planting the last of the tulips in the yard yesterday, I heard an unusual call coming from our tall maple tree next to our house. I rushed to get the pair of binos I keep in the car, which was nearby, looked up and saw a female Pine Grosbeak. She was giving conitinuous call notes, as is described on our Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs, eastern region, CDs, "tu-weet-wee" and "tu-weet." (Listen to disk 3, track 92, for those of you who have the CDs).
She then flew down to our Prairie Fire Crabapples and sat there, tamely watching me and 2 Corgis (who did not bark), our Phoebe, and her visiting mother, Chanel. I ran inside with the dogs to get Don to see the Pine Grosbeak. What a lovely bird. The most exciting part for us was, this was the first time we had ever seen that species on our own property! We added her to our "property bird list" as species number 179.
Photos © Lillian Stokes, 2007
1 comment:
179! I'm envious. My husband & I also keep a list of all animals seen on our property but it certainly can't compete with yours. Of course, we've only been here a year now. I look forward to catching up. :)
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