The first spiral trill of the Swainson's thrush was heard this evening. Hooray! My wife is thrilled.
They arrived early despite our delayed spring; the Salmon-berries are still small and green. Hopefully that means they will stay around a while. The 18th of May ('eruption day' in the Pacific NW) is commonly when their one-note calls are heard first, but the 14th was when I first heard their 'whipp' and 'breeek!' monotones. This evening I hear the more settled 'whip/brrrr' call a few times, then the call came at last. Nesting season at last?
This is one of my favorite "SURPRISE!" images. I took this photo featuring the towhee and cropped the image tightly, only later aware that he was being shadowed by a Swainson's in the uncropped image! I've recropped (shown here) to show the elusive thrush in its favorite place - under cover. :^) Too bad about the nail and pitched pole, not quite a pastoral scene.. also too bad I didn't have a longer telephoto lens, as the image did not crop without artifacts.
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