Monday was a Project FeederWatch count day. In my first article for Backyard Birdwatching Almanac, I talked about how the activity at my feeders has been very slow for the last couple of months. Just the last week or two, the number of birds visiting the yard feeders has really begun to increase again. I was delighted as I started my count on Monday to find good numbers of all the usual winter suspects that come to the feeders. There were northern cardinals, Carolina chickadees, tufted titmice, blue jays, white-throated sparrows, chipping sparrows, red-bellied woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, and Carolina wrens just to name a few. There are still a few of my winter backyard visitors who haven't shown up yet, like cedar waxings, and I keep an eye peeled for their arrival just any time. I also haven't seen any American Goldfinches at the thistle feeder, nor any red-breasted nuthatches at the suet.
As I scanned the yard with my binoculars on Monday, enjoying the cardinals and white-throated sparrows feeding in the corner of the yard on the ground, I saw something unusual. My first thought was that the bird was a female rose-breasted grosbeak, but something just didn't look right for that to be the correct identification. The bird flitted back into the underbrush, and I went to the book shelf and retrieved a couple of field guides to consult. I kept an eye on the corner of the yard and waited for the bird to return, which he did shortly. I managed to get many good, thorough looks at him through the binoculars, but he never came out into good enough light to get a photo. Using the information I was collecting through my observation, I did a sketch in my nature journal, noting all the outstanding field marks.
After studying the field marks and comparing them to multiple field guides, I made the determination that the bird was a first-winter male black-headed grosbeak, which is pretty unusual this far east. I have had an immature black-headed grosbeak in my yard in the past, so I know it's not totally impossible for them to stray this far. I believe the ranges of different species are expanding, and getting off course maybe isn't as unusual as it used to be. Perhaps the range of the black-headed grosbeak is beginning to expand eastward, and this fellow is just a bit out of his designated territory. However, we have to remember also, that the birds don't read the field guides, nor do they look at the maps when they choose to move from one place to another.
 |
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Brenda Muncrief's Drawing Nature topic, please visit the Discussions page.