Oh, Sped, what a beautiful picture! She is special! You never know, we had Sara, a gray cat (with a red personality), for 22.5 years, so your pretty gal may have a few summers to go. Like us, you must run a good cat house, lol. PM2 - I WISH I lived near a conserved area. 'Fraid the closest we come is living near a right-wing Lutheran organist, but there are horses across and up the street. Fortunately, Ivy pretty much ignores the birds and has not killed one yet. She favors 4 legged things and the random slithering thing...yuck. Claire? Today I noticed a Blue Jay mimicking a Broad Winged Hawk. Darn thing got me to dash into the house for my camera thinking 'Oh, boy, BW hawk in flight" only to find this B Jay clearing out the bird feeder area with his mimicking. It is effective! Have you had a mimicking Blue Jay? The Broad Winged hawks fly overhead around noon time and shortly thereafter, this Blue Jay mimicks them. Jane

This year is the first in about 5 years that I've seen the grosbeaks. I had 5 males on the feeder at one time, with more females scattered about. Here's a picture of a pair that I shot. Of course, the mail had his back to me!

The angle of that pic sure makes the beak look shorter and thicker. It does have the darker plumage pattern of a young male Redwing, though. You may never get a chance but, the way we used to sex immature Redwings, was that immature males have large black legs and feet, even when they are still in the nest. By the time they are the age of the one in your pic, they should have very faint red feathers in their shoulders. It is often hidden. though.

mare_wbpa.....My DH is a certified welder. That means I have a garage FULL(3 of them) of welders to play with. The swing is done as of yesterday, I'm starting on the cushions, Sunbrella fabric was ordered & has arrived. I'll post tomorrow....