BIRD MONOGRAPHS: by Donald Wilkinson

PINE GROSBEAK (Pinicola enucleator)

Order: PASSIFORMES SPECIES: 28-67-107 Family: FRINGILLIADAE — Canaries, Siskins, Finches Distribution:

Northern latitudes of Europe and Asia, mainly Russia; also Northern Canada and U.S.A., from Alaska and Yukon east to Newfoundland and the Maritimes, south to the northern edge of Great Lakes; western mountains from Washington to New Mexico. Winters to New Mexico, Kentucky and Virginia.

Nest: A bulky, loose, open structure of twigs and roots, lined with grasses, lichens, rabbit’s fur, in the crotch or on the branch of a spruce or fir or shrub. Inhabits coniferous forests up to 3,300 m (10,000 ft), usually near streams or ponds; edges of hay fields or pastures. Winters around gardens, berry trees and fruit shrubs.

Eggs: 2 to 6; usually 4; blue-green or gray-green, spotted, speckled with browns and greys. Diet: Seeds of pine, larch, spruce and other conifers and deciduous trees;

various tree fruit; sunflower seeds, tree nuts; also grasshoppers, beetles, flies and caterpillars.

Song: Short, clear, musical warbling "tee-tetew". The call notes a mellow, two or three whistled song. Also has a flight song.

Size: 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 inches).

Note: This species is relatively uncommon at most Island feeders, even those

close to its forest haunts.

Hagar The Horrible

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'1 h i . ml THIRD ANNUAL AUTUMN BIRDING CLASSIC: J. Dan McAskill

The early morning rising was greeted by silence as I left the house to starlight skies, warmth, and no wind! An auspicious start to the Third Annual Autumn Birding Classic to raise funds for the Island Nature Trust’s land management program.

By 04:30 hrs, the team of Linda Thomas, Roberta Palmer, and I was assembled and sipping coffee while enroute to the Red Head Road near Morell for owl calls along the area between Route 2 and the north shore, a good area in the past. Our first stop yielded great conditions for playing owl calls and obtaining responses.

The first bird recorded for the day was a Northern Saw-whet Owl that called in response to the owl tapes. It was heard by all members of the team as it moved closer and was one of three heard at that site. By dawn, we were two owling stops into the day and, with the addition of a Barred Owl and Great Horned Owl, we had obtained responses of ‘ the three owls we expected. ‘

This year, St. Peter's Bay failed to yield the tell tail silhouette of the Great Blue Heron in the street lamps glare but they were at Souris. We passed by Black Pond heading for the excitement elicited by what might be at East Point. Birding often brings the unexpected and this day was no different. None of us had

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