Winter Birds

Wonder of wonders--today a flock of 15 to 20 pine grosbeak. This is the first time I've seen this bird in Thomasburg, though early last spring a flock visited friends of mine about 10km northeast of here as the grosbeak flies.

It was very grey today, and the birds insisted on either sitting quite high in a deciduous tree or feeding in a coniferous tree, so it took a while for me to get a good enough look to identify them. But what a treat, and what a pretty bird!

An hour or so after I saw the grosbeaks, the first common redpoll of the season came to the feeder--all alone, which is not the redpoll way, but it looked as if it were travelling with a flock of goldfinches, so perhaps not lonely.

For more winter bird stories, and summer stories from the lands down under take a look at I and the bird #13 at Woodsong. The presentation is beautiful, in keeping with Cindy's beautiful blog, and includes a wide variety of great posts, for example a story about Penguins in Antarctica in dire straits from 75 Degrees South and a stunning varied thrush from Dharma Bums. And much, much more.

The federal election campaign, straddling the holiday season, has been a terrible distraction for me from what I'd much rather be doing: watching stuff, and reading the other nature bloggers. It's good to have so much good nature writing, of the bird variety, in one place, so that I can go back again and again and always find something more to read.

For more information about the carnival go to the home of I and the Bird. The next edition will be hosted by Gwyn at Bird Brained Stories on January 5, 2006. Send submissions to Gwyn or to Mike at I and the Bird central by January 3, 2006.