Click any photo to enlarge

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Thrush is wearing out its welcome

Yesterday some birders emailed me to tell me they visited the oasis and saw the Varied Thrush. So the poor thrush went 3 days without being fed. I felt terrible. I went down today with a happy birder who photographed his lifer thrush after I put out cracked corn, sunflower seeds, and wild bird seed. (I wanted to compensate for the 3 days of neglect). The thrush didn't act like he'd been starved when I put out the chow. He only made a few brief appearances.

Interesting, to me, was that the White-throated Sparrow that had been using the temporary corn feeder (that I dismantled) moved to the other feeders at the oasis when the cracked corn was gone, but the thrush never did. He just kept scrounging around in the same area.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to figure out something that he'll use, javelina can't destroy or feed from, and won't block photo ops. A tall order, for sure.

Meanwhile, I photographed a new butterfly species for me personally, and possibly for the oasis. Not sure. I'll have to check past journals to see if anyone has recorded it here before. Without further ado, here is my first Funereal Duskywings.


PS: The lepidoptrist friend who ID'd it for me told me it was a male. I didn't find a prior record of that species at the oasis, but the name sounds familiar. It's for sure new for me personally.

No comments: