I woke this morning at first light to a bright male rose-breasted grosbeak drinking from the birdbath before flying into the oak above it. I blinked behind the bedroom window. Really? Another rarity? June, with its 68 species of birds, has been the season of grosbeaks. A four-grosbeak summer.
Black-headed grosbeaks, the most common and numerous grosbeaks in the yard, arrive in April and stay all summer and into October. The migrants from stream-side thickets and mountains of Mexico, are birds of our 7-month-long incandescent season.
Blue grosbeaks come next in abundance, their presence here stretching for five months, May through September, when they return to Central America for the winter.
Rose-breasted grosbeaks, like this morning’s beauty (top), have visited the yard only 15 times in as many years, usually in late spring or fall. Common in the eastern US, the birds winter as far south as northern South America. This year, the yard hosted both a male and a female, like this one from early May.
I’ve seen yellow grosbeaks in the yard—or anywhere—only twice. The first in June of 2011 and the second just three weeks ago. Still pinching myself about this one, a female, who stayed for two days.
And then there was this:
For the first time this year, a cordilleran flycatcher calls from the yard with its sweet, two-note tee-seeet, which mostly bent my ear because I’d been hearing the bird the past four mornings at my daughter’s place in Mountainaire near flagstaff.
Nope. Not escaping into the high mountains of northern Arizona. The son-in-law scheduled a roofing project for the hottest day of the year.
Halfway there: The roof after two days of stripping shingles, tar paper, and pulling thousands of roofing nails.
Finally had to retire the old boots and break in a new pair. Should last me longer than the new roof.
Who doesn’t watch birds from the rooftop? The neighbor’s platform tray feeder draws goldfinches and crossbills. I’ve seen Red Crossbills only twice in my life.
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Is that, yes, duct tape on your old boots?!!