Birder Nancy Carlson shared these photos with me, from her garden in southeast McMinnville. In one we see the back of a painted turtle plus THREE finch species. Those bright, big colorful birds–Evening Grosbeaks. They are the biggest (size, not numbers) finch species anywhere in the world. And they are nomadic, coming and going without any consistent pattern outside their breeding territory. The little guys are a female Lesser Goldfinch, and a House Finch. The male grosbeaks are the bright guys, the female is drably dressed but shares the bright, white wing bars.
PARENTHOOD
Grown up starling taking care of two fledglings, cleaning up all the food in our garden:
Our own little finch flock is almost entirely siskins, up to day at a time, though we get one or two American Goldfinches now:
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