[EBB Sightings] Hello

I just joined the list and was reading this morning's mail. After 
hearing the specific aspect of pine siskins to the bird feeder warning, 
I put my feeder back out. It is right directly outside my window at 
work, which is in Rossmoor, a protected valley in Walnut Creek. The 
birds eat about five feet away from me, separated by a window, which is 
somewhat reflective so they are not the least bit scared by my 
presence.

Anyway, shortly after reading the messages, I looked out and saw my 
first purple finch! I had gone to the Percevia site and looked it up 
after reading the message here and it came to my feeder! I thought I 
would never be able to distinguish it from the house finch after seeing 
the photo but it really stood out.

Fun stuff. Rossmoor is like paradise for birders. There are few cats 
and the residents are pretty good about keeping them in.

I have the usual regular visitors: chickadees, oak titmouse, house 
finches and the junco. Above my office is a huge oak tree, and there 
are many such "heritage oaks" here in Rossmoor. We have many, many 
woodpeckers and sometimes I have come as close as 8 feet to them. I go 
for walks at lunch and see hawks all of the time. We also have many 
ducks and geese on the two golf courses (my office is right at the 1st 
tee of one of them) and I saw an egret on Monday.

Best wishes to all the bird-lovers,

Lance Beeson