![red-tailed hawks](//3.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/Sn8x94vC-pI/AAAAAAAAAcY/QLEmToKL4lY/s400/Red-tailed_Hawks.jpg)
High-pitched squealing cries in the sky ... I had been sitting in the porch reading but jumped up and ran outside: high up in the sky two hawks were slowly circling, so high that they just looked like two winged spots. I had heard these squeals before coming from a red-tailed hawk nest in the neighborhood. My camera with telephoto lens brought the birds a bit nearer: a wind-blown parent and a compact neat-looking youngster that was vocalizing for the entire time that I observed it. Maybe it was on its first high-altitude flight and needed reassurance from its parent :-)
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Yesterday afternoon I was working on the porch and casually looking up was thrilled to see two evening grosbeaks on the ground below the feeder; the first ones for me, and out of season too since they are usually only seen in the winter. Dave Johnston, who I ran into by the boat house near the Marina, told me who saw a group of EG on the West River trail at its Black Mountain Rd end. Maybe it's an early sign of fall?
![Evening Grosbeak, female](//4.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/Sn88e2RzB2I/AAAAAAAAAco/hzdvGjcwsnA/s400/Evening_Grosbeak_female_6571.jpg)
The two Evening Grosbeaks took off when my dog decided to investigate what I was looking at. Soon however another visitor settled in the grass looking for seeds, a very handsome male lst-winter Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
![immature rose-breasted grosbeak](//3.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/Sn4k96hrcVI/AAAAAAAAAak/tV4b07wkYXI/s400/Rose-breasted_Grosbeak_lst_winter_male_6075.jpg)
Later on, the tree, and the grass skirt around it, were overrun with Goldfinches, all males who were making quite ruckus. Actually I have never seen goldfinches forage on the ground for fallen seeds even when the feeder was empty.
![American Goldfinches](//2.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/Sn9T3mKiI6I/AAAAAAAAAdI/mseD2-5XYAE/s400/Goldfinches_6687.jpg)
Here are follow-up photos of the molting Blue Jay, who looks like his head feathers are starting to come back in,
![Blue Jay](//4.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/Sn9TIZzVslI/AAAAAAAAAdA/hg6VU6VqcyI/s400/Blue_Jay_6690.jpg)
and Northern Cardinal, who is still losing his,
and a new baldy, this very sorry looking Red-Bellied Woodpecker who just grabbed chunk of suet from the feeder.
It's getting dark and starting to drizzle, but the Goldfinches are still at it.