On Monday 15 November 2004 a wounded Pine Grosbeak was found in Leeuwarden, Friesland. The bird was taken into care, but died the next day. On 16 November 2004 in the late afternoon Jacob Bosma (who discovered the Western Black-eared Wheatear on 30 October this year) was observing Bohemian Waxwings Bombacylla garrulus at Beijum, a suburb of Groningen. Suddenly he saw a big bird and identified it as a Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator. A girl walked by and Jacob asked her to wait and not to disturb the bird. "This one?" she pointed? She pointed to another Pine Gosbeak! Jacob warned the Dutch Birdline and three other birders reached the area just before dark. The next 4 days the birds - an adult male and an adult female - were showing-off and everyone had the chance to see these big tame finches. On 21 November however, they could not be found again.
Sound recorded by Dusan Brinkhuizen on 18 November 2004.
Hundreds of pictures were taken. A good collection can be found on www.Birdpix.nl, the Dutch Birding site and the regional sites like www.lauwersmeer.com and www.avifaunagroningen.nl.
The birds were present till Saturday 20 November. This was the 6th record. The 7th record - a first-winter male - was photographed in a garden at Alkmaar, Noord-Holland on 15-16 November
(cf Dutch Birding 27 (5): 315-328, 2005). Previous records were in December 1909 (2), November 1928, March 1996 and the window-victim in Leeuwarden (cf Zeldzame vogels van Nederland / Rare Birds of the Netherlands by A.B. van den Berg & C.A.W. Bosman, 2001).
