Bye Bye Pine Grosbeaks T tRAIL wOOD

Trail Wood#10.09 by Earl Plato

Edwin May Teale continues: “ 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.
A soft, short whistle a kind of “Cheeee” that shows their relationship to the other finches, continually from among the feeding grosbeaks. This call has been described as having a little roll in it. He full song of the males, the song of their breeding time, is said to resemble that of the purple finch but to be wilder and sweeter. It is a melody made up of warbles, whistles, and trills. It is sometimes loud, sometimes soft, sometimes ventriloqual.
A quarter of an hour goes by while we watch hese visitors from the north. Suddenly, as though on signal, they all take off together.