Plate 122 – Blue Grosbeak

John James Audubon spent much of the spring and early summer of 1829 searching for and documenting birds in an area that was known as the Great Pine Swamp. The swamp surrounded present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania (see Plate 88). While exploring the Great Pine Swamp, Audubon exhibited once again his internal conflict between saving and taking the life of birds. Audubon picked up the “tink” calls of the Blue grosbeak and followed them hoping that they would lead him to a nest. Indeed, Audubon located a nest that was woven in between the forks of the branches of a Rough-leaf dogwood. Audubon peered into the nest and could see three Blue grosbeak chicks. All three were covered with ants. One of the chicks was still alive. Audubon found another chick outside the nest close to the dogwood that was also still alive. Audubon removed the two dead chicks, rid the one chick and the nest of the ants, and placed the other living chick back in the nest. Audubon kept watch over the nest until the two chicks safely fledged. Audubon then cut the branch with the nest and used it for his drawing of the Blue grosbeak for Birds of America.