Varied Thrush - a lifer

Of course, I would love to have had this bird closer, out in the open with a bt more light and no tangle of tiny branches in the immediate background, but I was absolutely thrilled to finally see a Varied Thrush! This had been in the top three birds on my Wish List for quite a few years, but on the very rare occasion that one has been seen in Calgary, I was never there when it was seen.

Two days ago, on 16 February 2016, I was on a birding walk in Fish Creek Park, that turned out to be longer and more fast-paced than I can manage. By the end, I was in such pain, but knew that I just had to go further when friend, Phil (from England), offered to take three or four of us back to near the beginning of our walk, to look again for this glorious bird. We had not been able to find it when we had tried earlier in the morning. Phil is a superb birder and we are always so lucky when he spends two or three months over here before going back to England for a few months. After waiting to see if the bird would appear, the others decided to leave. I followed Phil around a corner to look at the back of the trees we had been viewing - and there it was! Quite a distance away, but it was there! I couldn't believe my eyes. Can't thank you enough, Phil!! Now I have to decide which bird should be number 1 on my Wish List - perhaps the White-tailed Ptarmigan.

"The Varied Thrush’s simple, ringing song gives a voice to the quiet forests of the Pacific Northwest, with their towering conifers and wet understories of ferns, shrubs, and mosses. Catch a glimpse of this shy bird and you’ll see a handsome thrush with a slaty gray back and breast band set against burnt-orange breast and belly. Common in the Cascades, Northern Rockies, and Pacific Coast, Varied Thrushes forage for insects in summer and switch to berries and seeds in winter.

Varied Thrushes hop on the ground or low in shrubs and trees. They eat mainly insects and other arthropods in the summer and switch to nuts and fruit in fall and winter. On breeding territories, male Varied Thrushes sit on exposed perches to sing their haunting, trilling songs." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Varied_Thrush/id

The list of species seen two days ago, compiled by our leader:

FFCPPSoc. Birding, Bebo Grove to Shannon Terrace, FCPP, Calgary, 0915-1215, Tue16Feb2016. Mostly sunny, N wind 15kph, -3 to 10°C. Two groups;

1. Canada Goose- flock heard
2. Downy Woodpecker-6
3. Hairy Woodpecker-5
4. American Three-toed Woodpecker-1
5. Northern Flicker-1
6. Pileated Woodpecker-2+, seen three times at different locations
7. Blue Jay-3
8. Black-billed Magpie-2
9. Common Raven-7
10. Black-capped Chickadee-30
11. Boreal Chickadee-6
12. Red-breasted Nuthatch-12
13. Brown Creeper-2
14. Golden-crowned Kinglet-1
15. Townsend’s Solitare-1
16. American Robin-1, seen by Phil Q.
17. Varied Thrush-2 (1 m. seen, another heard)
18. Bohemian Waxwing-1
19. Pine Grosbeak-6
20. White-winged Crossbill-1
21. Common Redpoll-7
22. Pine Siskin-20

Red Squirrel-15
White-tailed Deer-6