Thanks, Ivory, for the wonderful anecdote about your grandmother. I was
sitting here trying to warm up after doing a few outside household chores
(5 F this morning at my house), and I could feel the warmth of those
Florida evenings as I read your story.

A few days ago Richard R. asked about WW crossbills etc in eastern Wa and
northern Id. For one negative data point, I saw lots of Red Crossbills (as
well as Siskins, Goldfinches, and a few Cassins Finches, etc) on an eight
mile tour of Moscow Mt (~5,000 at the top, a few miles east of Moscow ID)
last Sat, courtesy of this El Nino low snowfall winter that didn't require
skiis or snowshoes. No WW Crossbillls identified, but certainly may have
been included in the numerous finch flocks too far away for my level of
birding skill to identify. (The mountain is mostly pine/fir/Doug fir with
a few cedar/hemlock groves on the side I covered, and few spruce trees;
may not have been the right habitat for WWs.) Also saw no Pine Grosbeaks
up there, which I have found on the ridgetop there other years.

Unusual in my neighborhood is the lack of Evening Grosbeaks, which are
usually abundant by this time of year, but our gang of 3-5 Blue Jays are
still hanging around.

Lastly, on the dreaded 'Reply to:' issue, I am one digest-mode reader for
whom it makes absolutely no difference. I have found the number of
mis-directed posts to be quite tolerable, (and there is that subtle sense
of superiority one gets from seeing someone else screw up occasionally...)

Tom Besser
tbesser at vetmed.wsu.edu