...with Heather, Doug, and John on Friday to a private home outside of Waterloo to see the reported Varied Thrush. Once we heard about the pecking order of the feeding birds (right after the Blue Jays), we knew when we could expect her to land and sure enough, that's what happened!
The female Varied Thrush has a wide gray breast-band...
...versus a black breast-band on the male. For comparison, here's last year's male Varied Thrush:
A nice rear view of her boldly patterned wings, as an American Tree Sparrow looks on:
She didn't linger for very long, though, so we tried waiting for a second appearance but ended up vacating our front row seat as other birders arrived. Many thanks to the Ewart's for sharing their special bird with us all!
After the mandatory Timmie's stop our second, actually!, we headed to the outskirts of Kitchener to another local birder's home that Heather had a connection with. Our gracious hosts were Titia and Neil, who welcomed us into their beautiful home where we watched their feeders and surrounding woods:
Their main customers were Black-capped Chickadees, House and American Goldfinches, and Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, but by far their largest were these Wild Turkeys:
When all else fails, take the path less trodden and go for the platform feeder!
An unexpected surprise was a Brown Creeper in the woods, and my best views ever of a Carolina Wren at one of the feeders:
Doug, Heather, Neil, and John huddle up before heading back out on the highways:
Thanks again to both Titia and Neil for their warm hospitality, as well as to Heather for suggesting we stop!
My 2011 Year List is now at eighty-two species, and my Winter List sits at ninety tick tock, February's flying by...
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