We have a new feeder bird! I changed up our seed in the feeder and I started to catch a glimpse of a new colorful bird coming to visit. I could hear a new song in the backyard trees as well and I knew it sounded a bit familiar. It finally occurred to me that this was the same song that I heard earlier in the month on our hike to the natural bridge. It was the Black-headed grosbeak!
Sure enough….there are three that come to our feeders now.
They are such beautiful birds and I know now why they are called songbirds.
My field guide says this, “Song, rising and falling passages, resembles a robin’s song but more fluent and mellow.” This is the perfect description of their song. You can hear it in the video in THIS ENTRY or at this link on AllAboutBirds.
NotebookingPages.com has a great free resource for those of us who live on the West Coast…free bird notebook pages for the following birds: Red-tail hawk, Western scrub jay, Spotted towhee, House finch, Black-headed grosbeak, and Black-capped chickadee!
Here is your link: Free Bird Notebooking Pages
I took advantage of the free page for the Black-headed grosbeak and used it for my nature journal.
What a thrill to add a new bird to our backyard bird list….we started off the month of May thinking that our Tweet and See list was going to be sparse. Boy were we wrong! We not only have a large number of birds but a new one to report as well.
Another great week of nature study….another topic from the May Newsletter completed. We have our mammal still left to find but we may just revisit a wildflower instead if we can’t come up with a good mammal to study using the Handbook of Nature Study. Remember to submit your entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival to share your links just like you would for Mr. Linky.
You can really do any topic for your entry….I am hoping that you pick at least one thing from your own backyard and that you give the nature journal idea a try.
Don’t forget to use my discount code:
Use discount code = discount5 to save $5 on your $10+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
Use discount code = discount10 to save $10 on your $20+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
What a beauty! We don’t have that variety of grosbeak in NC (though we have others). I’ve been enjoying watching a pair of Carolina wrens build their nest by our deck, and waiting to hear when the baby cardinals in our baby tree might hatch! — Kathy at http://www.needleandspade.com
Just used your code for a discount on some of these great pages, so THANKS! 🙂
You are very welcome! Hope you get to use lots of the notebook pages!
What a beautiful bird. Your notebook page is really nice too!
I would have thought this was a Baltimore orial. I love this bird! I am sure we don’t have them in the Smoky Mtns.
What a beauty! And to have three at a new feeder! Plus, it is neat for me to see another variety of grosbeak. Guess what we saw for the very first time?? A blue grosbeak – pair – both the male and female came back throughout one morning this week. The male’s head is so shiny. We’ll share more about our bird study next week. So exciting!
I so appreciate you sharing your notebook page of your grosbeak. And, thankfully I got distracted and haven’t ordered the notebooking pages you linked to earlier. Will use your code with many thanks to you.
Your drawing of the grosbeak is gorgeous!
You Barb- the GBBC never has the grosbeaks on there. At least not where I live and I KNOW I saw a pine grossbeak last year I think it was. And I live in the Cornell Lab of O’s backyard!
Love visiting here! LOVE LOVE LOVE to see your art work and ideas. You are an inspiration. Thanks for all your work to share with the rest of us!
Heather