grosbeaks by the score

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This has been a great year for rose-breasted grosbeaks passing through the valley to points farther north.

Every day for ten days they have been at my feeders. The first few days only males, sometimes three at a time, then females.

Wow! What a sight. Love those bleeding red bibs.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal on May 24, 1855: “Hear a rose-breasted grosbeak. At first thought it a tanager, but soon I perceived its more clear and instrumental—should say whistle, if one could whistle like a flute; a noble singer, reminding me also of a robin; clear, loud and flute-like; on the oaks, hillside south of Great Falls.”

For more about their life history, go to: grosbeak.

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