Grosbeaks of the Evening

Actually of the morning.  I went down to Rondeau today in anticipation of seeing several finch type birds.
Target was Evening Grosbeak which was rather easy thanks to Ric and Anne McArthur's feeders.
On our first stop, we did not see them but no doubt they were quietly sitting nearby.  I went back a little later and met Dwayne Murphy who had just seen them. The grosbeaks were not visible at first, but looking around I found them sitting quietly at the top of a tree next to the house!  Eventually they came down to feed and got some good photos.

I met up with Steve Charbonneau at first light and we checked out south point trail.  Not many birds around except lots of (big) gulls on the lake.  Only saw a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Lots of Pine Siskins flying over as usual.  We heard one Evening Grosbeak flying over later on.
A latish Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was nice to see and the only Northern Flicker we saw was a pile of feathers.

Lots of these today!

Coming back on the trail, we met up with Dwayne Murphy and just before we got back to the parking lot, a couple of White-winged Crossbills flew over (first of many for the day).
We stopped at the McArthur feeders, but did not see the grosbeaks, so we headed up to the campground.

 A number of birds were there as expected.  This is an excellent time of year to check the campground.  A couple of sizeable flocks of White-winged Crossbills flew over at break-neck speed.  The only warblers were a couple of Yellow-rumped, one Nashville and one Palm.  I heard Greater Yellowlegs over on the Bay for the only shorebirds of the day.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Near the south end of the campground, I heard a couple of Carolina Wrens making a ruckus.  I suspected an owl, and sure enough a Northern Saw-whet was sitting proudly....

I checked various places including Erieau later in the day.  No sign of Cave Swallows at Erieau (yet).

Look at that beak!