#10 Pine Grosbeaks

Trail Wood#10.09 by Earl Plato

Edwin May Teale continued on with his observations of the six female Pine crossbeams: “ As we watch. We see the birds tear apart and toss about the brown lumps of the fallen fruit. Apple seeds form one of their favorite foods in the years when they come south. As they feed, their movements appear deliberate. And as we work closer, advancing cautiously a slow step at a time. We learn something else about them. This is their exceptional tameness. Nellie, making no abrupt movements, walks among their midst. I, with my camera, move within three feet of one of the feeding birds. It looks up, alert but unalarmed. I lean even closer and it takes wing. But it merely flutters up onto one of the lower limbs almost above my head.”