Out of nowhere seemingly, a group of six cowbirds (2 male, 4 female/juvenile?) showed up at my feeder this morning. Since moving to Boston Harbor this last fall, I have been thrilled by the number and variety of feeder birds I have attracted to the balcony of our apartment.

Regulars include Stellar's Jays, house inches, pine siskins (up to 25 at a time in winter, steady in the summer), goldfinches, song sparrows, fox sparrows (winter), both the usual chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, juncos (also winter mostly), towhees, downy and hairy woodpeckers, Anna's and rufous hummers northern flickers (as many as six in the yard on March), mourning doves, ruby-crowned kinglets, robins, black-headed grosbeaks (steady since April), starlings and house sparrows (both since June mostly).

Birds that have visited for a few days in migration: 7 western tanagers in late April, golden-crowed sparrows.

Infrequent visitors: red winged blackbirds, purple finches, white crowned sparrow, bushtits (always a thrill for me).

One timers: sharp shinned hawk, western scrub jay (I used to see these all the time in downtown Oly. I used to see one scrub jay as I would drive south into Olympia. Day-by-day, week-by-week, I would see it until one day it appeared on the apple tree in the yard, eating bugs. it stayed around for two days and then has begun moving south), least flycatcher and for now, six cowbirds.

Why on July 17th. Post breeding behavior? It seems weird for a parasitic egg layer. I'd love to know more.

This was just going to be a short email and I just started listing. Sorry to those I may have bored!

Rupert Grove

Boston Harbor, WA

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