Re: Swainson's Thrush

["John Morgan" <jmorgan480 at comcast dot net>]

Kris and all,
I went back to Mormon Flat (as the sign calls it...funny, everyone I 
know calls it Mormon Flats) this morning with binoculars and camera and 
spent time just sitting, waiting and watching. Main goal was to see the 
bird making a peculiar song I had recognized from many trips to mountain 
locations in the past. I didn't leave the area of the East Canyon stream 
(my name for it. Does it have a name?) near the parking lot. After much 
waiting, I saw my bird. Too far for photos, but through the binoculars 
it appeared to closely match the Swainson's Thrush coloring and size. 
With audio support from the Bird Song CD, I would dare call it as such. 
Yes, it's a wet mountain habitat with lots of thick willows, 
Chokecherry, and Dogwood trees. I got up the hill just west of the 
stream where I could see across the tops of all the trees. You could 
always hear them in the vicinity, but it took a while for one to show up 
in a place where I could see.

While crossing through the thick foilage near the stream, I played hide 
n seek with an LBJ. Finally got close enough (and took photos) to reveal 
a Sparrow's beak. This is a sparrow closely matching the Vesper or 
Savannah Sparrow. Had the noticeable dark patch on the breast. Photos 
still in camera. Most birds in the willows skulk around in the foilage 
and shadows and are nearly impossible to get well-lit photos. This one 
is quite a singer.

Most fun was the male Broad-Tailed Hummingbird that let me get close 
enough for good photos, then would fly away and return to the same 
branch. In the quiet, I heard the far-off cry of a Red-Tailed Hawk; not 
just the single cry, but repetitive squawking cries. I found him halfway 
up the mountain to the east in the top of a fir tree. A single 
resounding loud burst of woodpeckings rattled off nearby, but I had to 
stay on task till the Swainson's Thrush showed up. Lots of American 
Goldfinches and Yellow Warblers in the neighborhood.

And one final unrelated weird thing: heard an unusual squawking come 
from a nearby tree while out on the deck at home this morning. While 
looking to see what it could be, it came out of the nearby elm and flew 
straight overhead with constant Starling-like wing beats. Yellowish in 
head and breast, greenish towards belly and tail. Blunt head and very 
short tail. I had NO idea what it was, but my thoughts were something 
parakeetish that may have escaped from someone's home. Did not look like 
any bird from around here. Freaky to see an oddball thing like that! It 
was about the size of a Western Tanager. My first thoughts were Oriole 
or Tanager, but nope.

John
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