[EBB Sightings] Western tanager

Dear Birders:

Bird activity has slackened in my neighborhood since the departure of the flocks of wintering juncoes, the crowned-sparrows, and the warblers (mostly Yellow-rumped) that sang so sweetly in my big live oak.  But yesterday, I heard a Western Tanager, the first of the tanagers that pass through each May on their way to the Sierra.  A few Cedar Waxwings are still about "Zeeing" as they fly in small groups from tree to tree.  Up the street, where the yards back onto the University lands around Lawrence Hall of Science, I'm regularly hearing the bubbling song of a House Wren, who must be nesting in the area.

Until a week ago, I was regularly serenaded by a robin, which alone made up for the demise of the other birds.  Once the younguns are fledged, hopefully the adults will begin singing again. 

I am using Birds of American Online.  I can't sing its praises highly enough.  My family gave me a year's subscription for Christmas and before that I signed up for a trial subscription ($5 for a month).

On the subject of robins (under "sounds") I learned of their singing patterns and learned that both males and females sing.  In the breeding section, I read about how, where, and when the nests are constructed and how the female shapes the nest before depositing the sky-blue eggs.  Robins are among the few species that recognize the alien cowbird egg. They break the shell and roll it out of the nest.

Just as learning to identify a bird and giving it a name, makes it a 'friend,' reading the details of a species, makes it an intimate friend.

--Phila Rogers