A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Hobbies, Crafts and Creativity The Bird Lovers Forum Rose breasted Grosbeaks!!!

OMG you guys!!!

It is Grand Central out on my deck right now!
I am sooooooooooo excited! I put out some sunflower seeds this afternoon - I haven't been putting that out for months now - only thistle seeds, as the squirrels weren't allowing any birds to eat them

Well about an hour ago, my husband yells up to me to look out the window - there's a red-bellied woodpecker that just PECKED at the rear end of "some black bird"! It was a rose breasted grosbeak! Too exciting - we only get them for ONE day a year here and amazingly last year it was on May 4th! Today is May 2nd - WOW!

A few minutes later there were THREE male RBG, and 1 female!
AND... an assortment of woodpeckers - red bellied, downy, some goldfinches, a female cardinal, and some titmouses!

They are still hanging around out there and my husband is trying to get some better pictures than I got with my digital camera on zoom through the window. It's dusk out and very hard for him to get pics, but I will see how they are and post the best of them a bit later.

I'm soooooooo excited!

Ohhhhhhhhh - and he said that a hummingbird tried to land on the feeder that I just put out today for them, but it was tooooooo busy out there! First one of the season here too - just like clockwork! They have always come between May 1-5 for the past 8 years or so. Gotta love it!

Braggart!

Sorry - couldn't help it - it was sooooooooo exciting to see!!!
So many different birds out there at once - so glad we didn't miss it, and of course I wanted to share it with my friends here!

You are totally JUSTIFIED in your excitement. rose-Breasted Grosbeaks are one of the most beautiful birds in America and in the top ten birds that bird photographers try to get pictures of. I am thrilled and sooo jealous. I have seen a lot of Grosbeaks but never ONCE in any yard I've ever lived at.

Thanks so much, Thorny!

One of them was back this morning!!! I put out lots more sunflower seeds but the squirrels are already at them. I hope they leave some so the grosbeaks hang around for at least a little more time! Even my daughter noticed the one this morning and asked me what it was! She usually doesn't have time to notice things like that at 17! She said it was really pretty!


EDIT! OK - here is the current count out there right now in the rain!

3 male grosbeaks and 1 female
1 male cardinal
2 bluejays
2 mourning doves
LOTS of American goldfinches and house finches

And......... ONE very hungry squirrel who looks to be in a nursing stage -
I've never seen anything like that before!

Isn't nature GRAND?!?

OK - add to that tally...

the female cardinal
another bluejay
red bellied woodpecker
3 downy woodpeckers
a couple of starlings

A woodchuck on the ground for good measure! NOT!!!

And a partridge in a pear tree! KIDDING!


Edit again!!!

Add another male cardinal
a couple of robins
a baby male red bellied woodpecker - he's so much smaller than the ones we usually get!!!

and...I think one of the male rose breasteds is a baby - his rose is much lighter than the other two, and he has a couple of white feathers on the top of his head and body where the others are all black. He also seems a little confused about the seeds - the others watch him while he tries to figure it out?

WOW lynne---that is so great.--I too an jealous.--I get no cardianls in teh warmer weatehr--& I have not ever seen the female to my male downy--she he seems to prefer the oriole nectar--if that is not up--he is not here---

were any of the pictures worth posting?? I would love to see them all, if poossible. :wink:

OK - somebody PINCH ME!!!

Now there is ANOTHER female grosbeak and 2 chipmunks!!!

All of this is going on, on my second story deck!

I swear... I am NOT making this up! WOW!!!

it's like something out of a hitchcock movie over there!
are we gonna get to see some pics?

Funny Cricket!!!

My husband took over 100 pictures late yesterday afternoon, and I have to go through them on his computer first. Hoping to get some posted by the end of today.

Meanwhile there is now a 3rd female grosbeak!

Now there is a hummingbird out there!!! YIPPEE!!!
First one of the season is always sooooooooo exciting!


You all probably think I am making all of this up! Or dreaming it!
Honest to goodness I am not! I cannot believe they are all here in this dismal and cool weather! So glad I could help them find food now.

If you feed them......they will come.

holy cow! those are some pretty birds!
and what great shots!
I guess those birds don't come this far south, never seen anything like 'em?

OMG! LYnne!!! Tell Don he did an awesome job on these pictures!!! Your grosbeaks are BEAUTIFUL@@!!!

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don sitting there and waiting like that really paid off with those fabulous pictures,, Great Job!!!! I've never seen birds like that here either!

rose Breasted Grosbeaks migrate through eastern texas you should get them a little earlier in the year than this. We get them about this time of year in Nashville but they like forests and clumps of LARGE trees and my suburb is only about twenty years old so I haven't seen any yet. But we had a Pileated this spring and a Yellow-Billed Cuckoo a couple of years ago and they like the same conditions as rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, so I expect I will eventually get some here.

That speckled one is not sick and may be what we call a leucistc or partially-albino bird, a condition that is fairly common among birds. I've personally seen several birds that are partially or nearly albino myself. A FULL albino bird IS rare, however.

Lynne, rose-Breasted Grosbeaks breed, nest and raise their young in your area. You are in their Summer range. They just migrate through Tennessee twice a year, in the spring and in the Fall. Usually in April and the end of September, early October.

beautiful pictures.