Special Friends

Day 157: The Corvid family aside, no other bird tugs at my heartstrings in the way the Evening Grosbeaks do, largely because of my experiences with them. Nicknamed "porch parrots" in my household, my first acquaintance with them came during a backpacking trip. My husband and I were staying at Summerland, on the margin of the subalpine zone on Mount Rainier, and he had gone to a glacial stream for water while I set up the tent and put our gear inside. As I was working, I heard him shout, "Come here! Come quick! I've got a whole tree full of parrots!" As a non-birder, he can be forgiven the description. Evening Grosbeaks have very large bills which turn chartreuse green in mating season and otherwise resemble outsized American Goldfinches.

Our next meeting with the species came following the eruption of Mount St. Helens. The birds were in migration in the area on May 18, 1980 and thousands were killed in the blast. Others were blown off their flyway. Disoriented, burned, blinded by ash, one flock found its way to our feeders where an ample supply of food encouraged them to stay throughout the season. The following year they returned to introduce their brood to the territory. We were on the map from that point on, and not only did hundreds of them come to our feeding stations, they invaded the neighbors' feeders as well. When I moved here, one neighbor promised to keep up the tradition and does so to this day.

My encounters were not limited to watching them at a distance. Several years ago, I discovered an injured bird on my back step, his wing badly broken. With some experience in bird rehabilitation behind me, I brought my patient indoors and kept him in my back bedroom for six weeks while the wing healed. Flying lessons followed, and when he had regained strength in the wing, I released him, and none too soon because he was becoming habituated to the point that he would hold "hands" with me. For at least the next two years, Friend (identifiable by a growth on his leg) returned to the contorted filbert. I never saw him with a mate.

The porchies are back in force now, and I take my daily entertainment in watching them whether I am inside or outdoors. Like many of the birds in my yard, they show little fear of me or the camera.