Hermit Thrush

We just had a thunderstorm with the arriving cold front so does that mean we are going to have snow soon?  Seems there are differences in the old folklore saying.  Some say within 7 days, some say within 10 days and I even saw one saying within 30 days.  Thunder on Christmas Eve meant it should have snowed by 2 January to meet the 7 days.  Well, since is was about 73 here today at one time, that definitely has not happened.

Late this afternoon I walked by the window just in time to see the Hermit Thrush leaving the suet feeder.  It flew to the top of a nearby perching post.  So what is a perching post?  I put up a post near the feeder with several dowel perches because some irresponsible people have allowed their cat and other abandoned cats to breed uncontrollably.  We now have a fairly serious feral cat problem in the neighborhood.  To protect the birds, I put up the post to keep the birds out of easy reach of lurking cats.  Needless to say, those of us that feed the birds are pretty fed up with it.  If you love your pet(s), spay or neuter!  Much better for their health and it stops unwanted and abandoned animals.

They are not the best pictures but I was already at ISO 1600 and still could not get much shutter speed.

Hermit Thrush

Despite lots of sunshine, cool temperatures and a steady breeze made for a cold day outside so  I only went out for a little bit.  For the last several weeks, a Hermit Thrush has been hanging around a particular area.  As soon as I would try to get set to take a shot, it would go in to the underbrush.











This morning hunger beat out the desire to flee.  This Smilax vine is always loaded with berries in the fall through winter that look like blueberries.  You would think that the birds would really go for the berries but they never get eaten until very late in the winter and then only be a few species of birds and occasionally by the squirrels.


This Hermit Thrush took a liking to them and stayed for a bit giving me some good photo op's.

Hermit Thrush

Long ago I gave up on growing grass in the highly shaded back yard and keep it natural.  No grass to cut but leaf mulching is required.  I usually wait until closer to spring when the sight of a copperhead sends me running for the mower but with the warmer winter, went ahead and mulched early.

A good thing that has resulted from an early mulching is there always seem to be birds out scratching finding something to eat.  Today it has been a fiesta for the Robins, Towhees and sparrows.  As I would pass the window I noticed a bird that looked different from the usual visitors.

Out with the camera to get a shot.  Very glad to see the Hermit Thrush in the yard and it has spent the majority of the day here.