Date: 9/21/26 8:49 am From: lathrotriccus via groups.io <lathrotriccus...> Subject: Re: [LACoBirds] Evening Grosbeak, Jackson Lake
Great sighting!
Just back from Western Field Ornithologists' annual meeting in Ashland, OR,
where they're also experiencing an invasion by certain (normally rare)
montane birds. Double-digit flocks of things like Clark's Nutcracker in
areas where they might be lucky to glimpse one per year. Red Crossbill,
Pinyon Jay, Cassin's Finch and Evening Grosbeak also seem to be on the move
in numbers, though it's still early in the season so the full pattern is
still taking shape (we had the grosbeaks flycatching from trees in Lithia
Park right in Ashland!). At one campground in the mountains east of town,
multiple nutcrackers and crossbills were voraciously feeding on pine cones,
presumably extracting seeds; as pointed out to us by a local birder, this
was about the only tree in sight 'with' pine cones, so some type of
broad-scale crop failure may be happening.
This is a good time to brush up on the flight calls of all these species
since you're most likely to encounter them moving high overhead. Evening
Grosbeak has a very distinctive loud single-note call in flight, which to
me sounds like an amplified Western Bluebird's, like "PEEeer" or "SEEEnt".
Have a listen here:
https://ebird.org/news/evening-grosbeak-call-types-of-north-america.
We hear Clark's more often, so folks may already be familiar w/ its raspy,
jay-like call. Crossbills have a few call types that have been discussed at
length : )
Dan Cooper
Ventura Co.
On Sun, Sep 20, 2026 at 11:08 PM Grigory Heaton via groups.io <g.heaton=
<outlook.com...> wrote:
> This afternoon I had an immature male EVENING GROSBEAK pop up while
> walking back to my car at Jackson Lake, while searching the eastern San
> Gabriels unsuccessfully for pinyon jays. Seen at 3:45pm at 34°23'35.9"N
> 117°43'39.9"W. Oddly, the bird was apparently sheltering in a shrub just a
> few feet high right next to the road before flushing up to a branch, giving
> fantastic views for a bit and then flying down somewhere nearby unseen near
> the base of slope.
>
> We seem to be witnessing the start of an irruption of these with birds
> reported in Santa Barbara county and Death Valley over the weekend, so keep
> an eye out when you're up in the mountains.
>
> Grigory Heaton
> Pasadena, CA
>
>
>
--
Daniel S. Cooper, Ph.D.
President / Cooper Ecological Monitoring, Inc. / Oak Park, CA
Lecturer / UC & CSU
Research Associate / Department of Ornithology / NHMLA
323.397.3562 (text/call)
