Ruth, I had our first varied thrush about two weeks ago in Kenmore (I think this counts as
"in the city"). I was really surprised to see (actually, I heard them) them so early. - Teresa Michelsen

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From: Ruth Sullivan[SMTP:godwit at worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Friday, September 25, 1998 6:58 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Early arrival date :The Varied Thrush.

Hello Tweeters,
To our surprised, we had our first male Varied Thrush for the season.I keep
record on our yard birds, and in the last seven years the earliest was 23th
of October. We have a high concentration here in Fircrest where i live. At
one time we had 16 at one time in my yard. But this date today make me
wonder, if this means we going to have a verry cold winter with also early
snow? Did any birders had Varied Thrushes in there yard yet? I mean in the
city, i know there been already sightings of this species on the outskirts
reported.
Its so nice to have this most colourful bird in our yard, but today was
certainly a surprised. I been looking every day for our Hermit Thrush,
which comes around this time, so we been looking all the time,
Ruth Sullivan