Day 139 • Something Beautiful 2022: The Grosbeaks

Something Beautiful is the resurrection of a 2014 initiative to find a visual feast for each day of the year.

In the back of the house outside the screened porch and at the top of the garden between the beds and the wildmess of the woods is a craggy, wretched tree. A buckthorn, which I hate. But, ironically, I’ve grown to love this little tree because it has become the community center for the birds. In truth, it has nothing to do with luring the birds — I’ve hung two feeders from it. But it is perfectly situated for leisure viewing from the porch and in spring it is a circus.

There are finches, mourning doves, nuthatches, chickadees, wrens, sparrows, cardinals, all manner of woodpeckers — and grosbeaks. Oddly, I had never seen a grosbeak before coming to Villa Lucci. The rose-breasted males are magnificent with their peony colored ascots. They will move on soon, but it is a joy to see the “old boys’ club” meeting at the feeder. The girls come, too, and everyone sings full-throated and beautiful.