Return Of The Songster

 

Almost to the day this foxy-brown bird with heavy, dark streaking on their whitish underparts returned last week. The face is gray-brown and the wings show two black-and-white wingbars. They have bright-yellow eyes. 

An aggressive defender of its nest, this bird is known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.  Aggression aside the name of this bird comes from the sound the critter makes when scratching through debris on the ground.

A prolific songster, this bird is endowed with one of the most varied repertoire of any bird studied. A single male can sing over 2000 songs. 

A personal favorite; the Brown Thrasher!

 

We've had a long and enduring relationship with this species and you'll find it has earned multiple turns on the pages of this blog.  Enter thrasher in the search box in the upper-left corner and you can read them all.

 

 

Songster With a Temper

A foxy brown bird with heavy, dark streaking on their whitish underparts. The face is gray-brown and the wings show two black-and-white wingbars. They have bright-yellow eyes. 

An aggressive defender of its nest, this bird is known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.  Aggression aside the name of this bird comes from the sound the critter makes when scratching through debris on the ground.

This bird is endowed with one of the most varied repertoire of any bird studied. A single male can sing over 2000 songs. 

A personal favorite; the Brown Thrasher!

 

 

Smile For the Camera

Migratory bird life around here is almost complete.

After spotting a rose-breasted grosbeak the very next day the orioles and hummingbirds materialized.  The brown thrashers have been here awhile, the catbirds can be heard calling and for the first time ever a red-headed woodpecker has been a regular visitor to the feeders in the yard.

 

Sunday I fetched one of the trail cameras from the woods and mounted it on a post on the west side of the porch with a clear view of a feeder stocked with half of a fresh orange and generic grape jelly.

The Oriole Cam is back in business for the duration of the season....

Nice Catch on the Trail Camera

Meet Toxostoma rufum - the Brown Thrasher.  

click on image for a closer look

At first blush I thought this might be a Northern Flicker but the field marks weren't correct.   For this bird the long brown tail is a give-away.  And they are quite common in our woods.

Our DNR trail camera snapped this photo recently.  It is a pleasing and rare action photo.

From above this is a rust-colored bird and from below will be observed a spotted-speckled-streaked breast and a long brown tail.  Most often you'll hear this bird before you see it - as it is renowned for its song repertoire.  Of all the songbirds in north America this one has a book that includes more than 1100 tunes.

They are a delight to listen-to in the early spring mating ritual and much to our chagrin they like scratching in the shredded mulch of Jill's flower beds.

In the trail camera world this is what is known as a money shot.

Sunset

 

At the close of today there was this. 

The tree swallows have returned this week, the peeper chorale is warming-up in the ponds and today the brown thrasher has returned to the pulpit atop the apple tree. 

Spring.

S’all good, man.......

Bird in the Bush

Having been away on business for a spell I've been unable to monitor the Brown Thrasher nest in the tangley, gnarly, nasty and hazardous rose bush on the south-facing wall of the attached garage. Previously I has posted progress reports here and here.

This is what I found.

click on image for a closer look

 



Empty nest!  Yet momma bird was returning regularly to the nest to set and alternately perch in the rose bush to sing to her suitor posted high in the apple tree.

It may be that a predator of some sort cleaned-out the eggs that were there a couple of weekends ago or it is entirely possible they hatched and the youngsters fledged while we were away.  The book says 10 to 13 days from hatch to fledge.  I tend to lean toward the latter theory as opposed to the former.  I'm an optimist.

In any event, the Brown Thrasher typically raises two broods so we'll keep a sharp eye on developments.

Stay-tuned.

Bird in the Bush

Last Monday I published a post about the Brown Thrasher that has taken-up residence in our tangled, gnarly and generally dangerous, over-grown rose bush growing on the north side of the attached garage. 

Trust me - this bush is complicated - just taking a photo is going to result in scratches and stab wounds from the gauntlet of thorns you have to navigate.

As of Thursday grandpa and grandma now have the potential of three additional grandchildren - of the brown thrasher side of the family....

click on image for a better look

 

Bird in the Bush

It is said that a bird in the hand is preferred to one in the bush.  I'm not so sure of that.  That is because the big, overgrown, tangle of a rose bush growing on the south side of the garage is typically home to some bird that constructs a nest in it every spring.  The last few years it has been American Robins.  This year is this....

A cup nest carefully constructed of twigs that I first noticed on Saturday.  And in the nest was already a single egg.  If you click on the image for a closer look you will note that it is a pale blue egg with brown markings.






I paid close attention to the nest Saturday afternoon to observe who would return. At one point I startled the occupant who with a flash of dull red darted to the apple tree alongside the driveway.  After it returned I observed a bird that was slightly larger than a Robin, that sported a long tail, a long bill, a rusty red back with a white breast and belly with black streaks.

It is a Brown Thrasher - Toxostoma rufum.

And on Sunday there were two eggs... 

click on images for a closer look

 

We're going to be grandparents....