Out here in the northeast Mason County area I have nesting Black-headed Grosbeaks. Usually there are 5-6 pairs that come in early May, nest, raise their whining youngsters and then leave around the last two weeks of July. This year all but one family left at the same time. That family left about a week after the others. Not having seen any Black-headed Grosbeaks for almost a week it was a nice surprise to see another family come to feed for a couple days. All I can figure is the most recent ones nested elsewhere and stopped here to rest the kids and fatten up for the next leg of their migration.


Having a young Sharp-shinned hawk practicing its hunting techniques in the yard now will probably help any other migrants along on their journey. The sharpie is keeping the young jays occupied though.


Mary Hrudkaj

Belfair/Tahuya


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From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu <tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu> on behalf of Dennis Paulson <dennispaulson at comcast.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 7, 2016 2:16 PM
To: TWEETERS tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] I love the migrants

Getting the fountain in the back yard to flow profusely brought in hordes of birds, including the unbelievable numbers of both species of chickadees and young juncos, also House Finches, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Spotted Towhee, Black-headed Grosbeaks (4 in the yard this afternoon, have been here for a few days), a Golden-crowned Kinglet and a Yellow Warbler. The last three species are absent here as breeders, so all pretty early migrants.

Every year we get small numbers of immature Black-headed Grosbeaks at our feeders in August. They stay for days or even weeks, then are gone. They're not the same birds, as they are young, so why such a mass. Do they migrate in groups? Any other people have the same phenomenon?

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Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115