[obol] A "Varied" Sort of Thrush This Year

[Pat Waldron]

Dear Steve and OBOL,
    VARIED THRUSH are very common here during the winter, as I live in 
the foothills. I can’t remember seeing them up on my platform feeder of 
black oil sunflower seed. They spend a great deal of time chowing down 
cracked corn on the ground. They are all over the place, as I ground 
feed in different areas, and throw cracked corn under bushes, like 
Rhodies, out of sight of the hawks. I do notice numbers increasing 
around the yard during cold snaps and snow days.
    I think they are the birds that remove moss off rocks, and off the 
ground everywhere. It is not done with finesse, but looks like a large 
machine went through the yard, all moss, upside down. The mossy rocks 
along the garden paths, have all the moss stripped. The moss does grow 
back for their next year attack.
    Some years they are so thick, I did not believe they would all 
migrate out. This year is normal, to sub normal, in numbers. What is 
stunning to see is a male leucistic VARIED THRUSH. All the orange on the 
bird is white, and it becomes a striking black, gray, and white bird. I 
have seen two on the ranch in different years.

    Pat Waldron
    Linn Co.
   

Steve McDonald wrote:

>     Varied Thrushes have ordinarily come to my place, which is next to
>the foothills in the Southern Willamette Valley, just for a few days at
>a time and only in very cold weather.  This year, things are very
>different.  In November, six of them stayed for two weeks, left for
>three weeks and then came back in late December.  They have been here
>constantly, ever since.
>
>     They dig in the needles under my big fir trees and sometimes pull
>up red worms from the lawn. There are thick rhododendrons, ferns,
>currants and other native plants under the trees and they spend time in
>them.  But, for the first time here, they have been eating birdseed from
>feeders.  One male started joining the sparrows and juncos on the
>feeders about three weeks ago and in a few days, the other thrushes
>joined him.  They eat a lot of it and I'd think that was the main
>attraction that is keeping them here, except that I never saw them touch
>it for the first two months.  Recently, a male took a peanut in the
>shell and flew off with it.  I assume he had both the intent and
>technique to open it.  
>
>     Unlike all other birds that come to the feeders, including jays,
>these thrushes do not defer to the squirrels.  They stand their ground
>and even make lunges at them, if they get too close.  There is one
>dominant male thrush and the others, except one, are obligated to wait
>until he leaves, before coming to the feeders.  There is one female,
>that may have some history with him, that has a pass to the feeders, but
>I never see any other interaction between them, that indicates they are
>paired.
>
>     A few days ago, many more Varied Thrushes joined them.  There may
>have been 14 or more buzzing around the yard, trying to establish a
>pecking-order.  The new arrivals didn't stay long, but they may also
>have been spending an extended period down in the valley. 
>
>     Is this all unusual behavior for them, or have other people been
>seeing them do these things in the past?
>
>Steve McDonald
>
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