Black-headed Grosbeak

This morning my sister and I (grammar?) went up the mountain and clipped more thistles. I hacked away at a nine footer with at least 20 flowers for five minutes! It was at least two inches thick. Also, whenever a siskin came along to try and spread the thistle seeds, I chased them off. Usually they just stared at me like I was stupid and flew off only when I got within a few inches of them :-P. At dusk today, I went searching for Northern Pygmy-owls. It was an unsuccesful search, but I got some excellent views and photographs of a gorgeous Black-headed Grosbeak. I pished to it and it craned its neck at me, then flew away. These relatives of cardinals are not very common around here; I usually only see one each trip I take to NM, and have only seen one male. Though today was sort of humdrum, The Grosbeak made my day.