It looks like a pine grosbeak, eats like one, but it's a ...

Q: What is this bird? It came to our feeder. We think it is a pine grosbeak.

A: Had you described your bird in words instead of a photo, I might've agreed. A bird that's new to a couple of pretty experienced feeder watchers beautiful reddish head and back eats sunflower seeds — this winter, it sure could be a pine grosbeak.

I say "this winter," because this is an irruption year, when species from the Far North have moved southward, popping up in unusual places.

Snowy owls are getting all the media attention, but pine grosbeaks, crossbills, redpolls and red-breasted nuthatches also are in the mix. But there's another bird that matches the description, and that's what your photo shows: a male purple finch. Not nearly as rare as pine grosbeaks in the Tri-State, purple finches look like bigger, prettier house finches.

Enjoy your new friend.

Q: I found these plants growing along the road. They were green until it got cold, but now they're brown. They smell great! What are they?

A: Gotta say, I love cellphones. Not because I talk on the phone a lot, but because it seems that everybody has a camera near at hand every minute of the day. Sure makes it a whole lot easier to identify a plant or bird — even if the photo is blurry, there's usually some telling detail.

Your good-smelling plant is sweet Annie. Even when dead, this annual "weed" from Asia still has a fruity, perfumey apple cider or camomile aroma.

Q: Sally, saw you in "Birds and Blooms." Your article said you can grow your own safflower plants. Do you know where I can buy some seeds so I can grow them?

A: You can buy packets of safflower seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds ( and other catalogs, but there's another source that's way easier and way cheaper: Just pick some safflower seeds out of a bag of birdseed.

They're the plump, good-sized white seeds, elongated rather than round, often in seed mixes sold to attract cardinals.

Q: I and my wife went up to the Goose Pond state area just south of Linton, Ind., last week and were amazed at the variety and number of waterfowl and hawks, owls and other inhabitants. We were especially enthralled by the whooping cranes. I'm sure that's what they were, even if they aren't supposed to be in Indiana. Great white birds, tipped wings. Could you confirm for me that's really what we saw? We counted 14 of the birds and I understand that there are fewer than 500 still in the wild.

A: Yes, your big white birds may have been whoopers. (Uh, where was your cellphone that day?)

As part of restoration efforts, captive-bred birds were taught to follow ultralight aircraft on a migration route from Wisconsin to Florida that took them through Indiana (

"First Mom," the first crane to mate and raise a chick for that flock, was shot and killed in Indiana in 2009 by an 18-year-old boy from Cayuga, Ind., and his juvenile friend. Someone turned them in for a $10,000 reward through the Catch-a-Poacher program.

Another crane was shot and killed near Crothersville, Ind., in late December this year, just a few weeks before you wrote.

Whoopers can live longer than 20 years, which makes it doubly sad that idiots still are shooting them.

By the way, Goose Pond, northeast of Vincennes, is no stranger to rare birds — the first roseate spoonbill ever reported in the state stopped there in 2009.



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