Pine Grosbeaks in Fergus

[Steve Hood]

For the past week a group of 8-15 pine Grosbeaks have been feeding on fruit filled trees that line Byesdale Ave East across from Highland Road.  You can get withing 15ft of the birds while they are feeding and the trees are only 15ft tall so they are use to people walking by on the side walk.  They do scatter when a large truck comes by but they usually stay close by in a larger tree so you may need to wait for them to come back down.  There is only one male among the group and he is not always there.

You can see a few in this cell phone shot from this morning.

https://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo/ful ... 1545838988

[Paul O'Toole]

Nice job on seeing these. They are around but no joy on my end so far.

[Dinusaur]

There were three of them reported (and possibly still around) on Plug Hat Road (Beare Wetlands) near Toronto Zoo. Here's the link to the eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L2734260

[Steve Hood]

I am still hoping for a good Bohemian Waxwing opportunity with all the Crabapple trees full of fruit.

[Shortsighted]

I checked out the Plug Hat road sighting a couple of times and found no signs
of a Pine Grosbeak. I even followed the tractor trail in both directions (north
and south) of Plug Hat and only saw Blue Jays and Cardinals. There is some
corn next to the road (a tiny dump) and there was nothing feeding on it.
Someone else drove by and stopped in front of the house and took a gander
at the roadside tree with binoculars but apparently didn't see anything.
The first sighting reported was farther north of the road in the hydro field,
which is why I trailed the tractor path.

[Dinusaur]

Sorry that you missed them. The exact location appears to be 4 Plug Hat Road. Last report was from Jan 5, no report since; the crab apples are gone by now so they must have moved on.

[Dinusaur]

By the way it was reported again today (Jan 10) - near 4 Plug Hat Road.

[MikeN]

They have also been reported recently at U of Guelph (Jan 10) and Monticello Wetland at Luther Marsh (Jan if anyone misses on Fergus and needs another option out that way. The bird(s) at Luther have been there since late November. Ebird has the location details.