During the Whidbey Audubon Christmas Bird Count on January 3rd, my team
spent over 30 minutes identifying and closely examining a flock of 8
PINE GROSBEAKS*, all females, that were feeding on madrone berries at
the intersection of Pheasant Run and Hollyberry south of Coupeville. (A
very serendipitous sighting; I walked the area today and those trees
were empty. Not that they couldn't have moved to another patch of
madrone berries in the neighborhood! They were very quiet and
inconspicuous as they perched quietly at a cluster picking off berries.)

*Distinguished by:
--large size (robin)
--all gray body except yellow-green wash on head and rump (at least
one had alternate rusty coloring)
--white wing bars and white edging on secondary feathers
--short, thick bill
--dark bill and eye give almost mask-like impression, so on first
quick glimpse they brought to mind "cedar waxwing!"
[Males have reddish-pink coloring, more extensively. We saw none of those.]

Sarah Schmidt, Coupeville

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^o^ ^o^ ^o^ ^o^
Sarah Schmidt
TERRAFILIA
243 Rhodena Drive
Coupeville, WA 98239
(360) 678-8396
(360) 929-3592 cell
junco at galaxynet.com
^o^ ^o^ ^o^ ^o^

"I arise in the morning torn between
a desire to ... save the world
and a desire to ... savor the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day."
E.B. White