{"id":1226,"date":"2012-04-26T16:18:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T21:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2012-05-04T16:21:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T21:21:31","slug":"blue-grosbeak-in-the-old-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/?p=1226","title":{"rendered":"Blue Grosbeak in the Old Field"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Late on a warm, cloudy, windy morning, a single sharp, metallic <em>chink!<\/em> caught my attention as I walked past the old field along the dead-end road outside our neighborhood. I walked back a short way, heard a <em>chink!<\/em> again, and found a small dark shape with a slightly crested head in the top of a chinaberry tree, surrounded by huge, ragged, swelling mounds of dusty-white privet in bloom. The bird flew almost immediately, and perched in the top of another, taller tree in the middle of the field, where I could see him a little more clearly, even in the cloudy gray light \u2013 a male Blue Grosbeak. Not really a small songbird \u2013 more medium-size \u2013 a deep, dark blue all over with rusty-orange wing bars and a big silver, conical beak, he perched quietly, not singing, and not calling again, but switching his long tail back and forth, and swaying a little as the treetop swayed in the wind. He stayed there for three or four minutes before flying again, to another treetop at the far north end of the field.<\/p>\n<p>Each year I hope Blue Grosbeaks will return to the field, where one or sometimes two pairs have nested in past seasons. Last year, I think only one sub-adult male stayed and sang for several weeks. The one I saw today might stay, or it might be only passing through.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe because it was late in the morning, or because it was cloudy, or maybe because of the wind, few birds were singing in the field \u2013 a Northern Cardinal, an Eastern Towhee, an American Robin in a hedge across the road and a Brown Thrasher up in the top of an oak. A shadowy Gray Catbird flew across the road and into some shrubs, disappearing before I could see it well. A Black Vulture sat hunched on a utility pole just beyond the field, overlooking the busy highway below. A small flock of about 15 Cedar Waxwings flew over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Late on a warm, cloudy, windy morning, a single sharp, metallic chink! caught my attention as I walked past the old field along the dead-end road outside our neighborhood. I walked back a short way, heard a chink! again, and found a small dark shape with a slightly crested head in the top of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1228,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}