Varied Thrush joins the Harris's Sparrow southeast of Apple Creek
By Bruce Glick
April 27, 2011
308
Columnist Bruce Glick summarizes happenings in the local birding world. This week Bruce reports on yet another rare western bird that showed up, this time in Wayne County. Find out more in the "Gone Birding" column.
Lighting does strike twice, at least with regard to rare birds at the Troyers. Earlier this winter, their discovery of a rare Harris's Sparrow made the location a stop on most birder's to-do lists. Fortunately, the bird stayed around all winter and was still being seen last week.
However, when a stroll through the woods at a break from work turned up a beautiful Varied Thrush, it was almost too good to be believed. This happened on the morning of April 20, while several of us were in Conneaut hoping to see a good hawk flight (which never developed due to heavy rain).
The word spread quickly and a number of local birders and some from a distance, spread out through the woods trying to re-locate the Varied Thrush. The bird was seen briefly by several birders but it was not easy. On our way home from Conneaut we stopped and joined the search for an hour or so in the afternoon but had no luck. Perhaps it had moved to another woodlot by then.
Later that evening, the thrush was found again and this time a number of lucky folks got to see it. The next morning it was back in the same area. I drove up to look again in the afternoon and we spent another hour or more without finding it. Before I headed home we decided to make one more sweep at the end of the woodlot, and there it was. This time it gave us excellent looks, even flying across the stream bottom and perching in a tree where the light was better for photography. Then it was back down to the ground, where it stayed while a number of other birders arrived and got to see it well.
Bruce Peterjohn, in Birds of Ohio, notes that the first Varied Thrush was found in Ohio on December 18, 1977, and after that has been found at least once most years. The sightings usually come in the winter, making this appearance the latest ever for Ohio. While the Varied Thrush nests in the northwestern U.S. and up into western Canada and Alaska, it seems to be a species that roams a lot. There are records from across the central and eastern part of the country. This particular bird was a female, and it was not seen again after the second day.
As usually is the case, a number of other interesting birds were heard or seen while folks searched for the rarity. Pine Warbler, Winter Wren, Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and the Harris's Sparrow were all found during the two days. As someone said, it was just good to get out into the woods and watch and listen this time of year. We are often in too much of a hurry to do that.
Good birding!
Bruce Glick
birderbruce@yahoo.com
330-317-7798
