Saturday, 12 July 2008 @ 8.19 PM
Looking a bit roughed up...
He looks a little rough around the edges today, but this Gray Catbird has been a regular visitor to the bird feeders since about July 4th. Okay, so I am a little behind in breaking the good news! Seriously though, he has been at the feeders pretty much every day eating from the blocks of suet.
Perhaps about 10 minutes before I took this photograph of him, I spotted a bird on the ground that, after bouncing around for about 20 seconds, flew off into the trees. I was sort of freaking out trying to identify it from memory (since I was without camera at that moment). I kept thinking I saw it wrong, and that it REALLY WAS the Gray Catbird, but it had a bright red/orange beak. Also, it was of dark plumage. After some memory recall, a beer or two, and a lot of page turning in the many bird books in the house, I deduced it was an immature Northern Cardinal.
Initially, I thought it could very well be a Northern Cardinal, but the darker plumage threw me off. That is more common in immature Cardinals than in the more seasoned ones people are used to seeing in their backyards.
SOOOOO... mystery solved! You can breathe easy now!