Published October 24th, 2007 at 10:40 pm in daily with no comments
Tagged with
I did not spend much time outside today, as I had work I needed to get done. I did stop by Swan Lake briefly on my way to the library.
Weather: It was generally overcast today. Sometimes the clouds were quite heavy and it seemed rather dark outside. The sun did break through the clouds briefly a couple of times this afternoon. There were a few light rain showers. Winds were fairly calm.
Birds: I saw some Varied Thrushes in the backyard through the window.
At Swan Lake I saw two American Coots, the usual assortment of Mallards, one or two American Wigeons, scaups, and several Ring-necked Ducks. The coots were down at the lower end of the lake again. The Ring-necked Ducks seem to like stay up at the upper end of the lake at the edge of the vegetation. When I took a closer look from near the radio station I saw more than I realized were there when I had been looking from the penninsula.
There were 20 or so Mallards in Kettleson Library Cove.
Published October 24th, 2007 at 10:18 pm in birds, identification with no comments
Tagged with Hermit Thrush, identification, Swainson's Thrush
I’ve been following a discussion about the identification of a Catharus thrush in Nevada on the Frontiers of Field Identification e-mail list and someone mentioned that it would be helpful to have photos of birds from around the continent to see variation in Hermit Thrushes. That inspired me to gather the various photos (some higher quality than others) I’ve managed to take of Catharus thrushes around Sitka over the last few years.
Unfortunately, though I feel like I have a pretty decent grasp of Swainson’s Thrush and Hermit Thrush (our common Catharus thrush species) calls/songs, I have yet to achieve confidence in my ability to distinguish sight. Part of this may be due to the fact that I have never had a real solid look at a bird I knew at the time was a Swainson’s Thrush. I have done my best to indicate what I think each bird is for those that I can. I will not be surprised if others can easily find errors, and I would certainly appreciate any corrections.
(click on thumbnails below to see page with set of thumbnails for that grouping; click on those thumbnails to see larger image)
