Hi everyone,



With all the reports of Evening Grosbeaks, I'll add today's visit into the hopper.? This morning when I was first getting around I looked outside and saw a large flock ?(by our past standards, perhaps a dozen) of Evening Grosbeaks feeding in the yard and on the feeders.? I put some more seed out and within a half hour, the visible birds numbered around 25.? Hopefully they will stick around for a bit, but they are so ravenous they will probably move on figuring that all the grub around our place must be gone.? A number of the birds drank from and bathed in the water feature, and I got some shots (again through the window glass to avoid spooking the birds, which didn't help the image quality much).? One photo showing a happily wet Evening Grosbeak is at
http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=10122896&cat=38994 ?if you're interested in looking.?



As has been mentioned in several posts, it seems that Evening Grosbeaks are unusually abundant this year.? Based on the size of today's crowd, I would agree.? As this species has been in significant decline, it would be nice if the observations reflect positive news rather than statistical anomaly or good old nomadic behavior.? One thing I did notice about this flock was that males outnumbered females about 2 to 1.? I don't know if that is a typical gender ratio (some families or species -?some ducks, for example?- have this kind of skew as a normal ratio) or unusual.?



In any event, it was good to see (and hear - the flock was extremely vocal) this beautiful species in these numbers.?



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net