Monday, April 20, 2020

Day 36: a rosy day







OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!

rosy spent the day


This one came—plop!—placed before us like strawberry pancakes at IHOP. We were in the breakfast nook with morning coffee watching the feeders, planning the day's chores, then there it was. Plop!

OK. Chores can wait until tomorrow. Let's watch this instead. Don't you just love that red messy bib? It does look like he has dribbled strawberry or, better still, cherry syrup down his chest.  

We were expecting this migrant but were still surprised when he flew in. 


Rose-breasted grosbeaks (Pheucticus ludovicianus) are one of the few long-distance migrants that will come to your feeders and eat seeds. Most migrants are primarily insectivores and wait to arrive until the trees are filled with caterpillars. 

Related to cardinals, the rosies have those large sunflower seed crunching beaks. After flying all night through the rain, it must have been hungry because it spent the day on our second floor deck bannister eating from a special dish we prepared. We wanted to be able to watch it at eye level.


We expect it to move on tonight, but he was our special guest today.

Ob-la-de, ob-la-da. Life goes on.

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