Evening Grosbeak - Welcoming Back a Long-Lost Friend, Exeter, RI, December 2018

I grew up in Maryland, developing my birding skills there in the 70’s and 80’s.  During that time Evening Grosbeaks were a regular occurrence many winters, especially at feeding stations.  I remember large flocks descending on my feeders, devouring the striped sunflower seeds and requiring re-stocking multiple times each day.

But now 30 or 40 years later, Evening Grosbeak population dynamics are a whole different story in the East.  Here in New England, lately they have become a rare occurrence in the northern part of the region, and virtually non-existent in the southern parts.  For instance throughout most of the southern portion of New England, Evening Grosbeak is now considered to be a rarity in eBird requiring details.  I used to see them as a breeder most every summer at Pawtuckaway State Park in southern NH.  But their numbers have dwindled there over the years, with the last eBird record coming in 2015.  As a wintering bird, since moving to New England in 1993, I’ve not seen this species in CT or RI.  Though admittedly since I had seen them in CT before 1993 I haven’t needed to chase them there.   

But I still needed Evening Grosbeak for my RI statelist, and as a result each winter I’m always on alert for stakeout birds that might be chaseable there.  So it was with considerable excitement that I read the following prediction for Evening Grosbeaks in Ron Pittaway’s “Winter Finch Forecast 2018-2019” – 

Expect a moderate flight south into southern Ontario and the northern states because both conifer and deciduous seed crops are generally low in the Northeast. The best spot to see this striking grosbeak is the feeders at the Visitor Centre in Algonquin Park. At feeders it prefers black oil sunflower seeds. 

Ominously, his forecast ended with this comment –  

In April 2016 the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) listed the Evening Grosbeak a species of Special Concern due to strong population declines occurring mainly in central and eastern Canada. 

[See the postscript at the end of this post with more news about Evening Grosbeak population declines.]

Could this be the year to finally add Evening Grosbeak to my RI list?  And given the population declines, I better focus on this target this winter, because who knows when we all will have another chance to see this species in southern New England (and elsewhere for that matter).  Just as predicted, there were a number of Grosbeak reports throughout New England as Fall progressed.  My first birds were a flyover pair on 10/23 in my neighborhood, followed by a single flyover nearby on 12/6.  But I’m in north-central MA – still more than 40 miles from the RI border as the Grosbeak flies.  A few Grosbeak sightings were being reported to the south, initially especially at hawk watch sites on the CT coast.  Then finally a few reports popped up in RI – most were flybys and a few were birds that stopped albeit only briefly.  On speculation, I made a trip to Buck Hill WMA but came up empty.  Then there were a couple reports from Nicholas Farm Management Area which I chased after without success (though I did have an amazing time with Red Crossbills there!). 

The first somewhat chaseable RI reports came from Burlingame State Park near the coast.  But they were only there for a couple days and I couldn’t break free to go after them.  Then came reports of a flock at feeders on Block Island – but they were gone by the time most of the details came to light.  Ugh… 

Then finally came the break I needed – Evening Grosbeaks were reported for several days at RI Audubon’s Fisherville Brook Wildlife Refuge in Exeter.  And then came a report of up to 20 birds at a feeder a short distance nearby (though the homeowner didn’t allow visitors on her property – not very neighborly of her…).  I reached out to the caretaker at the Fisherville refuge and got permission to visit the property and the feeders the Grosbeaks frequented.  Next I contacted Don Heitzmann who lives nearby, and we planned to meet at the refuge the next morning to search for the Grosbeaks. 

We arrived at 9:30 on 12/14 quite optimistic, and walked down the driveway toward the house listening for our target birds.  But it was pretty quiet so we headed to the feeders in the back.  There we found typical common feeder birds but still no Grosbeaks.  But just a couple minutes later I heard a distant call note of a flyover Evening Grosbeak.  Within a few seconds we watched a female Grosbeak land above us in the top of a bare tree.  Then we heard multiple Grosbeak call notes coming from down the driveway.  We doubled back and soon spotted multiple birds feeding in a pine tree.  The birds were eating poison ivy berries on vines that were climbing up through the pine.  I got these phonescoped photos of birds feeding in the tree (unfortunately the male was a bit obscured).  

A bit later several birds flew to a nearby Juniper and began to eat berries there as well.  Then multiple birds flew behind the house, and a few seconds later we found them feeding on the ground beneath the sunflower feeder.  I got this phonescoped photo by looking through the picket fence into the back yard.

We counted at least 11 birds in the flock.  I had finally gotten Evening Grosbeak in RI!  That was #332 for my RI list, and the 250th species I’ve seen in each of the 6 New England states.   

My statebird map for Evening Grosbeak is provided below – the dark shaded states are those in which I’ve seen this species; the cross-hatched states are those where it is regular but I haven’t yet seen it.  Or at least those are states where Evening Grosbeak used to be regular.  Alas… 

Now a postscript on additional news on Evening Grosbeak populations-  On May 12, 2018, James Westrip posted an article on the BirdLife International Globally Threatened Bird Forum titled "Evening Grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina): revise global status?"  Although at the time the species was considered of Least Concern by BirdLife International, he proposed that Evening Grosbeaks should be listed as Endangered.  The criterion cited to place a species in this category is a population reduction of 50% over 3 generations, and one referenced study showed a decline of 65.2% over 3 generations.  He states that the "cause of these decline[s] has not been identified yet, although habitat alteration, disease and control of its insect prey (e.g. Spruce Budworm) have been put forward as potential contributors."  The Evening Grosbeak Species Factsheet on the Birdlife.org website now shows that the species' status has been changed to Vulnerable, defined as "considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild".  Unfortunately very sobering news for this beautiful species.