Thursday, December 02, 2010

Grosbeaks brighten a rainy day

Wednesday was a miserable, dark day with heavy rain - not the sort of day that one expects during the early days of a Vermont winter. We can screw up the climate with carbon emissions, but we can't control the weather we get. So my favorite companion and I made Christmas cookies, beginning with Danish klyner. These "twisted" cookies are deep fried. Then I mixed up Finnish bread, a delightful little treat held together by butter. But the oven never reached temperature, and by mid-afternoon we were shopping for a new range.

Tufted Titmouse on the window feeder

However, about Noon, with cookies unbaked in a dead over and dismal rain coming heavier, our flock of Evening Grosbeaks arrived. They still number 40+ individuals.


So many people long to see just one Evening Grosbeak, while I have dozens visiting daily. How I can explain my good fortune? Is it due to:
  1. Clean living?
  2. Superior virtue?
  3. Reward for working so hard to learn my birds?
  4. A months-long, inexhaustible supply of black oil sunflower seed?
  5. All of the above?
  6. None of the above?
  7. Dumb luck (emphasis on the dumb)?
You can vote on this, but if I don't like your vote, I will treat it like a hanging chad (remember the '00 presidential election in Florida). - or perhaps learn from the Afghans and stuff the results.

Good birding!

9 comments:

Dawn Fine said...

Holy Cow! I would vote that you are using superior food...sunflower seeds coated with caviar or something like that.

Unknown said...

Boom & I will pass on the reason for the visit Thanks.

Jen Sanford said...

I'll just go with all of the above and maybe one below... And add in an additional "holy cow!" with a hint of jealousy!

Folkways Note Book said...

Chris -- I would say # 5. All the above. What a feast for the eyes to view all the Grosbeaks! -- barbara

Kelly said...

Hahaha...you crack me up. Well...it can't be 1 - 4 because I do all that too and have none at my feeders...haha ;-) ...and I have dumb luck sometimes with an emphasis on dumb so that one's out too. I'm going with 6 and saying the answer is Vermont! (I would faint if I looked out of my window and saw all those beautiful grosbeaks at my feeders.)

Nathan B said...

I'd say #7 ;-) I travelled 7 hours last weekend into northern Ontario to see one and was shut out but did manage to see a N. Hawk Owl, I have no logic to explain that except bad luck coupled with good luck ;-)

Anonymous said...

I would be #7 if it happened here but never saw one here. I did see a cross bill once and thought i was somewhere else.

Julie G. said...

Whatever it is, you are so very fortunate. 40+, WOW! A joy to see all these beauties. Your images and words brought a big smile to my face.

Chris said...

Not for the rain, but for the grosbeak, you are a lucky man ;-) Beautiful shots even if they have been taken through the windows.

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