Skepticism is well and good but as one of the ornithologist at the Burke
Museum said to me when I was a fledling birder,"They do have wings, you
know." Wierd birds show up where they are not supposed to and this has been
that kind of a year what with a White Stork in Kent and White-headed
Woodpeckers in Thurston County.
Rahne Kirkham
rahne at mindspring.com
Federal Way
"Time is just the stream I go a'fishin' in."
Henry David Thoreau

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Patterson <mpatters at oregonvos.net>
To: <jschmitt at sprintmail.com>
Cc: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 28, 1999 6:30 PM
Subject: Re:Crimson Grosbeak


> One of the problems with the information age is access to too much
> information. The new NGS guide is a fairly good example of this.
> In their effort to be complete they have included species that are
> so improbable throughout most of North America as to be distracting.
>
> Barring an escape, it is highly improbable that a Crimson-collared
> Grosbeak came to your mother-in-law's feed. I think you've registered
> your own skepticism sufficiently and I'm not saying anything surprising
> to you.
>
> Pretend as though Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Red Bishop and Eurasian
> Bulfinch are not included in the book. Just block them out. What is
> the next most likely bird? I don't want to suggest any myself, though
> I have an opinion....
>
> And on the off chance that it is a Crimson-collared Grosbeak, buy
> your mother-in-law a camera. She may have the next Xantu's Hummingbird.
>
> Joanne Schmitt wrote:
> >
> > Yesterday, while visiting my in-laws in Port Angeles, we saw a Red
> > Crossbill land at their feeder! I had never seen one there, and neither
> > had my mother-in-law. She also told me that both she and my
> > father-in-law had seen a Crimson Grosbeak (native to Mexico) at their
> > feeder several times within the last week. I really doubted it at
first,
> > but her report sure fits it and they both went through the entire
> > Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds and could find nothing else
> > remotely similar to what they saw. My mother-in-law is somewhat new to
> > birding, but is VERY observant, having been taught to observe wildlife
at
> > a young age by her father.
> >
> > Joanne Schmitt
> > jschmitt at sprintmail.com
> > Poulsbo, WA
> >
> > "The earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs,
> > but not every man's greed."
> > - Mahatma Ghandi
>
> --
> Mike Patterson I don't swear for the hell of it.
> Astoria, OR Language is a poor enough means of communication
> mpatters at orednet.org and we've got to use all the words we've got....
> Besides, there are damn few words anybody
understands
> Henry Drummond in "Inherit the Wind"
>
> http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html
>