This afternoon I glanced out the window at one of the bird feeders, then reached for binoculars.  There were a dozen birds on the feeder: lesser goldfinches, house finches, and chickadees.  But on the squirrel baffle below the feeder was a strange-looking bird I couldn't identify with bare eyes or binoculars.  So I grabbed the camera and inched closer to the double-pane window - not wanting to cause any of the birds to fly.  I took about 20 pictures, none of them good, before a scrub-jay sent everyone away.   See three photos here.  Looks like there's a grosbeak in this bird's heritage; but what else?

Kay Loughman
in the hills on the Berkeley-Oakland border