Alpine consolation

 Since I can't go to the oasis until tomorrow, I resolved to enjoy migration in Alpine today. About the time a group of birders (Naturalist Journeys) arrived, I had been talking to birder Bill Sain in the alley between our house and the habitat (Johnson Ponds) when I spied the elusive Wood Thrush that I had been seeking for the past week.* I was determined to photograph it, so I took a barely diagnostic shot of it in the shadows. Then, while trying to get everyone on it, it flew away. I knew the odds of relocating it were slim, but I pursued it across the street and down an alley to where some of the birders said it had landed in a tree. Here's the group in hot pursuit. I relocated it in the grass beneath the bare tree that's peaking out behind the white building.

Luckily, all got to see it and I got my photo.

Not my best Wood Thrush photo, but I'm thrilled to have gotten one this good.

Meanwhile, at the oasis, some dear neighbors came and finished cleaning out the silt from the stucco tank. I can't believe they chose to push the dirt up the steep ramp in a wheelbarrow rather than carry it up in buckets. No way could I ever do that!

Thanks, Bruce and Stephanie! You're the best!

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*On April 15 and/or 16 my husband saw it foraging under the grape arbor near where he was sitting on the patio. I was at the oasis, but my son was working in the workshop there. Hugh got my son to come look but Lee didn't have a camera on him. He later described it to me and I knew what it was. Then on the 18th, Jon McIntyre visited and got a photo of it. So I've been watching for it ever since. Yesterday, while photographing a Common Yellowthroat, I thought I saw it in my peripheral vision but couldn't locate it.