{"id":120,"date":"2009-01-13T22:59:14","date_gmt":"2009-01-14T04:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/?p=120"},"modified":"2009-01-13T22:59:14","modified_gmt":"2009-01-14T04:59:14","slug":"winter-birds-redux-hermit-thrush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/?p=120","title":{"rendered":"Winter birds redux: Hermit Thrush"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have only four records in eight years for the Hermit Thrush on our place, including today, all in the creek woods.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2003, I saw one briefly near Main Ford, right in the middle of the woods, on January 27 and again on February 2…almost certainly the same individual.\u00a0\u00a0 In late October 2007, I saw one in the south part of the creek woods, and got a (not very good) picture.\u00a0\u00a0 We’re “supposed” to have them–we’re in their winter range–but these birds are small, shy, and easily missed among the winter sparrows.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They’re quiet and secretive.\u00a0\u00a0 I had read descriptions of the Hermit Thrush’s song but never heard it.<\/p>\n

Until today.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was headed for Owl Pavilion, on the trail through the creek woods, and had already scared up a deer (crash, bang, crash, crash, crash as it leaped off through the dry leaves.)\u00a0\u00a0 Periodically,\u00a0 I stopped to listen for birds–the thin whits, tsieeps, tseets, of the winter-resident sparrows, mostly, and the sweet chatter of goldfinches, now gathering into larger flocks.\u00a0\u00a0 For the first time in days, it wasn’t windy, so the sounds of birds scuffling in the leaves, or their wings when they flew, were clearly audible in the afternoon stillness.<\/p>\n

And I heard a song I hadn’t heard before.\u00a0\u00a0 Soft, sweet, but penetrating–it’s been described as ethereal, and it is, in a way.\u00a0\u00a0 I couldn’t spot the bird, but I could follow its movements as its song came from here…then there…<\/p>\n

At Owl, I set up to photograph birds at the water–a goodly crop of wintering sparrows (Harris’s, White-crowned, White-throated, Lincoln’s, Savannah, Song), cardinals, mockingbirds…and then I heard a soft call, not the song…and spotted the thrush.<\/p>\n

\"thrush101\"<\/p>\n

The eye-ring showed up much more clearly in real life, especially when it came to water.<\/p>\n

\"Hermit

Hermit Thrush<\/p><\/div>\n

This shy bird kept moving and really did not like being photographed–alerted at every click of the shutter and fled to impenetrable cover after just a few shots,\u00a0 so it took awhile sitting very still in the cold to get enough pictures to show all the field marks I needed (these two don’t show the red-brown rump and tail–two others do.)<\/p>\n

I hope to hear that song again someday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have only four records in eight years for the Hermit Thrush on our place, including today, all in the creek woods.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2003, I saw one briefly near Main Ford, right in the middle of the woods, on January 27 and again on February 2…almost certainly the same individual.\u00a0\u00a0 In late October 2007, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13,8,23,70],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wildlife","tag-beauty","tag-bird-behavior","tag-observation","tag-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}