The sun was barely up when I stumbled down the hall and into my work room yesterday morning. As I leaned over the chair to place a cup of coffee on the corner of the desk, I glanced up at the sunflower seed feeder hanging just beyond the window.
Wow! A male rose-breasted grosbeak!
This constitutes the first-ever male I've seen here along the river. I do enjoy what I've come to think of as my "annual grosbeak sighting," which has invariably been of the less-colorful female. And heretofore, these grosbeak events happened only once each year, generally in the early spring. I figured when a female grosbeak showed up for a day last week—which I mentioned a few posts back—was that 2011's grosbeak quota had then been reached. Now I've not only added the missing male from the cottage tally, but I've doubled my usual grosbeak total. Who knows what lies ahead!
The photo isn't much. The light was really low, the window dirty, and there's a bit of sun-glare across the glass. I'd hoped to do better outside later on. But as things worked out, though the bird hung around most of the day, I spent all morning and afternoon on a wildflowering junket to a nearby woods, then later had to attend an early-evening meeting downtown. So what you see is the best image I managed.
Still, I'm elated. A male rose-breasted grosbeak at my window. Wow!
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16 comments:
I think the photo is fabulous !
I have a big window in my studio and I love looking out at all the wild life that zooms by, two legged and four legged alike !
cheers, parsnip
Angryparsnip…
Hey, thank you…but really, I usually take a lot better shots of birds at this feeder, though I seldom post them. Still I got the shot and the bird and I'm happy. And I do love looking at all the birds and critters and changing light the view through the window provides.Makes my work go a lot easier…a lot slower, but pleasurable.
BTW, welcome to the riverbank. Perhaps you've been a long-time lurker, but I think this is your first comment. Hope you enjoy this place.
Uh.... I think the photo is pretty damned impressive!
Beautiful.
I have never seen a rose-breasted grosbeak, except in photos.
Congrats on your new visitor.
GRIZZ
"YAY"
Love you
Gail
peace.....
Robin…
I'm maybe too critical. As a photo it does show the bird's markings and most of the coloration. But it still misses the mark for what I want and try to accomplish. I'm not complaining, though it may sound like it. Just wishing I'd have managed a better image. Sometimes you get what you get…
KGMom…
On my frequent trout sojourns to Michigan and elsewhere northward, I've seen countless rose-breasted grosbeaks and the equally lovely evening grosbeaks. But this is the first-ever male for the riverbank, and one of only a handful I've seen in southwestern Ohio. Quite the banner visitor, though possibly already gone, as I spent literally the entire day today—from kain't see to kain't see, as they say down South—working at my desk, 4-feet from the feeder and in view of the other seed feeder, and though the free-eats crowd was busy, busy, busy…not a grosbeak appeared among the gobbling massess.
Gail…
Yay, whoopee, and wow! I'm pleased, as it's been on my "wanted" list ever since the first female showed up which was the first year I moved here.
Hope you're feeling better…
Figures...I get wacked and beat to death in the briars to follow a male and a female an never get within range and you stumble-bum into a great shot with a dang coffee in your hand to boot! An if you don't start posting your feeder shots I'm gonna get mad because it seems to be the only way I'll ever see a closeup!;)
...oh my gosh! Could you tell him I'm down river...not that far the way the crow flies...and maybe he should drop by my yard too? We've never been visited by a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, which happens to be one of Matty's favorite birds! Very cool...
Michael…
Hey, what can I tell you…it pays to advertise!
(It also pays to be lucky, vigilant, have your camera handy, and a place to hastily set your full mug of coffee down without slopping it on your keyboard.)
Kelly…
I'm constantly amazed by what drops in here…and I'm sure I don't witness the majority of my unusual visitors.
Of course it's all really due to the wooded river corridor and the proximity of several very large tracts of "wildlands" parks and public lands nearby. That's the only reason there's a pair of bald eagles nesting five minute away, for example, and why I occasionally get to see one hunting. You live (I'm assuming) close to your river, but aren't quite connected in vegetation and overall habitat.
It's the same thing that applies to real estate…location, location, location.
Hey, I'll see what I can do to send a grosbeak Matty's way!
I just saw this bird at my backyard feeder in the Flint, Michigan area. I had never seen one there before, and had only seen them in pictures. Wow!
What a coincidence...my bird blogging friend Penelope http://penelopedia.blogspot.com/ just posted about seeing her first male rose breasted grosbeak at her feeder. I am blessed with many of them around here. Their song is so cheerful!
Anonymous…
I've seen grosbeaks all over Michigan…or at least I can't remember any trout streams or campgrounds on the lower peninsula or U.P. lacking grosbeaks. But all of the places would be north of Flint, so maybe they're not all that common until you get north of, say, Bay City or Standish. They're neat birds.
Deb…
I remember the first time I fished the Au Sable east of Grayling. It was mid-May and the woods along the river was simply ringing with the sonds of grosbeaks. Rose-breasts and evening grosbeaks are two birds I really wish I had around here.
I'll have to get over to Penelope 's blog and read about her first-ever male grosbeak. It is an amazing coincidence. Must be a message in there somewhere…
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