Wednesday, March 15, 2006

morning song


Every morning, starting around sunrise, the evening grosbeaks gather in the upper branches of this aspen tree near the house, chirping loudly. Get about thirty or forty of them chirping, and it's a raucous, joyful cacophony. They do this for about half an hour before descending on the sunflower seed feeder in waves of black, white, yellow, and gray.

I don't know why they are called "evening" grosbeaks; they are really morning birds.

2 comments:

cyndy said...

I used to see big flocks of evening grosbeaks like you describe, but have not had them come through for several years now. They are quite a showy bunch!

Gwyn Calvetti said...

Oh, what a treat this must be! I had a pair of them visiting my backyard for a few days many years ago in early summer.
I suppose I could add that to my life list; never thought about that, since I wasn't "counting" at that time.