Barb,

I, too, associate the appearance of Varied Thrushes with colder
weather, and have been surprised to see they linger in my
neighborhood in North Rose Hill, Kirkland. We have a good scattering
of Doug Firs and other evergreens, but nothing you'd call deep woods.

HOW TO IMITATE THE VARIED THRUSH:
This is what I came up with. While saying a long "do" (as in "I do"),
emit a soft, low whistle. After a few seconds, drop the pitch a note
or two. You can also go out into the yard and scratch around while
eating bugs, but I don't recommend it.

Marc Hoffman
Kirkland, WA
tweeters "at" dartfrogmedia "dot" com
http://www.SongbirdPhoto.com


At 10:20 AM 3/30/2012, Barbara Miller wrote:
>Here in the Bellevue (Washington) Crossroads area we have a suburban
>landscape with some bits of Doug-fir greenspace not far away in
>several directions. But the seriously deep forest with which one
>associates the song of the Varied Thrush is not at hand. I have had
>the pleasure of seeing a varied thrush regularly visit the ground
>underneath my feeders this winter, snapping up bits of suet that
>have fallen, and digging a bit, presumably for insects. I figured
>that, once the higher elevations were truly snow-free, he would
>return to them.
>
>But as I faced yet another grey morning wishing for something
>special to raise my spirits, I heard a new bird song from the
>flowering plum, an extended single-note flute that I associate with
>forests and thrushes. A check with the binoculars showed that
>indeed, my varied thrush is now singing from the top of the tree. I
>imagine it's too much to hope that a female might agree with him
>that this would be a place to raise young, so I plan to enjoy it
>while it lasts (when a brood of mallard ducklings appeared last year
>next to the small water feature in my yard, they didn't last long,
>so I am all in favor of birds only nesting in places that are right
>for them). But I'm wondering just how rare an occurrence this is in
>backyards that are not right at the edge of deep woods.
>
>Barb Miller
>Bellevue, Washington
>Bmill07[AT]Comcast.net