Did you say WOOD THRUSH?

8 December 2021

A few days earlier, Cynthia Madsen reported a Wood Thrush in her yard in Centennial Colorado. What in the world is a Wood Thrush doing in Colorado in December!? The bird was coming to her water feature at semi-frequent intervals, so I was really interested in trying for the bird. The bird came in every couple hours on the first day that birders looked for it, which was a day I wasn't able to go for it. I decided to give it a go on the 8th and see if I could snag this goodie for the green big year. The bird had been more regular in afternoon, but it was seen about noon the day before so I left in the morning and was able to commit about 4 hours to wait for it.

Cynthia's house was only 13.5 miles away, so quick trip! Ha! I arrive, after navigating a lot of roads and paths that I was not familiar with and she said the bird is here! WHAT? NO WAY!? I leave my bike against her house and sneak in, but the bird was gone. It only perched on her back fence for a few seconds and was gone. Gah! I wasn't too deterred since the bird had been seen 3 times already! Now the wait begins. Now if I had just left a couple minutes earlier, I could have gotten it very quickly. Alas it wasn't to be.

Cynthia had her dining room arranged with a bunch of chairs for folks to sit and wait and watch out her back doors. Cynthia was a great host and a group of folks and I waited for a while. At one point Rob and I raised her chandelier so we wouldn't keep hitting our heads on it. After 75 minutes, the bird came into the tree above her porch and dropped down to the water feature! Everyone got great views. We all moved slowly so we didn't spook the bird, which was quite skittish. After a couple minutes the bird left and we all celebrated. And I ate the 3 homemade cookies I'd made the day before with the kids.

What a GREAT bird for Colorado and in December. Cynthia was a wonderful host and allowed us to watch and wait. The Wood Thrush was Green Big Year bird #281, which tied Thomas Heinrich's total from 2020. I never thought 275 was really possible given family, work, time constraints, etc., but here I am at 281! It's been a heck of a ride, literally.

It was really fun getting the Wood Thrush and celebrating this bird with Cynthia and others. I did NOT expect a wood thrush this year!

Digibin shot of the Wood Thrush!

Thanks to Cynthia for the group photo of us waiting (and me eating, of course).

Totals:
Green Big Year species list: 281 (as of Dec 8)
2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year Species List

Pledge or donate here to the new Joe Roller Memorial Grant. Thank you.

https://cobirds.org/CFO/Grants/

Thanks for reading!
Scott

Comments

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