LAST year around this time I had the excitement of seeing a nearly pure-white bird mixed in with a flock of robins, and it turned out to be either a nearly-albino robin, or a nearly-completely-leucistic robin. It had the vaguest of rustiness on its breast, but otherwise, white. Sure, that was cool, but I was hoping for something even more amazing, like, I dunno... a ptarmigan or something. What robin-sized white bird could it have been, other than an albino robin?
So, after all the excitement about the eyebrowed thrush south of here, Alice and I were ambling around the Montlake Fill portion of the UBNA today around 3 or so and flushed a robin and another robin-sized bird with distinct wing markings like some sort of shorebird -- jagged white lines when the wings were spread. We cautiously approached to find.... a robin. With distinct wing bars. I will post a couple of very fuzzy phone camera pics on Facebook shortly.
I guess all I'm saying is, robins like to mess with us. I really hope there IS an eyebrowed thrush down there, though!
Cheers,
Josh Hayes in soggy Licton Springscoralliophila at live dot com