Subject: [Tweeters] varied thrushes
Date: Feb 26 10:18:22 2006
From: Kathryn Hornbein - kurlew at earthlink.net


I've been blown away by the Varied Thrush vocalizations this year.
Have you? I think we have just one pair in our yard. He started the
season with all sorts of amusing whistles--more rapid cadence then
I'm used to hearing up in the foothills where I frequently hike,
wavering and often very hoarse. During the GBBC I observed them,
mostly 30-50 feet up, in our D. firs. They were whispering to one
another--their soft musical "chup," and a variety of short trills on
different pitches, stunningly endearing. This morning, one hung out
just outside my bedroom door (which we keep wide open) sometime after
dawn, probably 630-700. The cadence is still rapid, some wavering,
but the whistles were sometimes clear, sometimes a coarse trill, and
of course all over the place in pitch and, well quality, I don't know
a better term. Amazing.

I've watched him move around, as if establishing territory. Do they
actually nest down here? (I'm on Lk. Samm.) My heart is breaking,
we're moving March 2nd.

kathy hornbein
bellevue WA
kurlew at earthlink.net