Yesterday's lone, very orange, male red cross-bill must have been the
advanced scout for today's flock that came in. Amazing how 15 largish birds
can come in to a feeder without making a sound. The flock was a pretty even
mix of males and females. The orange male from yesterday was here also. He
showed just a tinge of olive green on his back so I'm thinking it's a first
year male.

The cross-bills joined a flock of over 230 pine siskens which has been
hanging around my place for several days now. The thistle feeder gets
filled daily if not twice a day in addition to thistle feed thrown onto the
deck for them. It has been very intersting watching and trying to
photograph their displays of aggression toward one another when feeding or
attempting to land on the tube feeder. Their incessant noise gets to be a
bit much however.

The mountain quail have been coming in between 6:30 and 7:15 am lately but
cannot yet be counted on from one day to the next. They have been out for
only 10-15 minutes when they do show up. The pair did put in a surprise
evening appearance over the weekend. As soon as they become more consistent
in their feeding I'll let one and all know.

In the meantime, anyone know of a cheap source of thistle feed????

Mary Hrudkaj
North Mason County/Belfair
hrudkajm at hotmail.com