Subject: [Tweeters] VARIED THRUSH - Yard Visitors and Image
Date: Jan 27 00:29:59 2008
From: johntubbs at comcast.net - johntubbs at comcast.net


Hi Everyone,

Shy and reclusive bird species frustrate us as birders sometimes...but it can be even worse if you also do bird photography. One of my photographic nemesis birds has been the Varied Thrush. As several recent posts have indicated, these birds are showing up in numbers in parts of King County recently. Up until this morning, I have had only two brief visits by single individuals to my yard, and they offered no photo ops at all.

This morning I woke up just after dawn and looked out on the yard to see what was happening. There were SIX Varied Thrushes intensively working around the shrubs, on the grass and periodically flying up into the trees - accompanied by the usual mob of Dark-eyed Juncos. They hung around off and on for the entire day, and mid-morning I noticed several coming to drink from our little artificial creek. I had my camera handy and slid a small, low window open and managed to get some shots without spooking them. Several of the images came out extremely well, for example the following - http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=5543240&cat=38989 - removing this species from the 'yet-to-get-a-good-shot-of' list I keep.

Hopefully they'll stay around for a while.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com