While out walking the Tree Farm on Tuesday afternoon, I caught a glimpse
of a movement from the ground to low branches of a big second-growth
Western Red Cedar tree. I knew it must be a bird but who was it? I stopped
and started to focus my binoculars on the tree branches while slowly
approaching the tree. Not a sound from the bird. I finally got a good look
as the bird made its way up the trunk of the tree, going from branch to
branch. Spotted breast, smaller than a robin, absolutely silent, but the
lighting was not good enough to make out the red tail. Who else but a
vertically migrating Hermit Thrush, who spends fall and winter in the
Western Washington lowlands, and nests in the high Cascade Mountains. My
last sighting was two years ago, December 1995, the red tail that time
quite visible.

I certainly look forward to these rare or unusual sightings.

Erin

Bill and Erin Woods Woods Tree Farm Redmond, WA U.S.A.
<wwwbike at halcyon.com>