Hi Tweeters:
It seems the bird feeders are a great place for copulation. So far,
I've
seen a pair of song sparrows in action, and yesterday a pair of
goldfinches. (I thought they were later breeders and was surprised to
see them copulating already. I don't have the Bent's book for finches or
I'd look up goldfinches "egg dates." I really should get the rest of
the series, I have 16 of them, I think I only need about 3-4 more. Are
they sold around here?)

I also have a very cute pair of orioles hanging out together and feeding
on insects or spiders in my evergreen shrubs. The male was a puzzle
that I've finally gotten figured out. He is not orange. He is yellow
like the female, with a black bib. According to Bent, (Arthur Cleveland
Bent, Life Histories series), the "postjuvenal molt occurs in late
summer... that produces the first winter plumage, in which the young
male acquires black lores and a narrowly black throat, but which is
otherwise like the plumage of the adult female; young birds made breed
in this plumage." And, there is "apparently no spring molt, the spring
plumage being acquired by wear."

The robins next to my front window have fledged already. The babies,
perched up on the branches, looked way too young to go, and I told them
that but they didn't listen. So, I found one flattened in the road in
front of the house, and I chased the cats away from the other, but they
probably came back. I hated outdoor cats in acedemic way before, but
now it is personal.

Kirsti Streifert
Coulee Dam