The first call of a swainsons' thrush was heard on 5/18, right on schedule! Our first grosbeaks (black headed) were seen and heard five days later. We love both songs and it's nice to see and hear them.
We also had a deer family drop by, a mom and two small ones from last year. They camped out for most of two hours!
My surgery in early May was followed by damp weather, which has allowed the grass to grow tall. This coming weekend should be dry, so it should be several inches lower soon.
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.
The Swainson's Thrush arrived at their usual time, May 18-19. Alert hweep!s and relaxed hwips were abundant the past ten days - but no attract-a-mate up-spiraling calls? Those usually begin within a few days, but perhaps the females arrived a bit later this year. No point in showing off one's best singing with no attractive audience to hear it!
I should probably stop hwip∙ping at them when they announce their presence; I might be canceling an appropriate alert before it's prudent, or telling them 'this spot is taken' and driving them away from us to sing up a new family!
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| pay no attention to the towhee at left, but instead his sneaky Swainson's shadow on the right! |
Lórien is feeling quite cheerful now that her favorite bird call is in the neighborhood. Cheerful is good.
from allaboutbirds.org - Swainson's Thrush
