Absolutely incredible! Another Monday in December and another Sage Thrasher! Found, and photographed by Cory Ross on Saturday (12/19) at Hinsdale Setbacks, with news circulated more widely by Steve Mirick on the NH Birds listserve on Sunday evening. Not only the second in the Connecticut River Valley inside a week but also a stunning state first for New Hampshire.
No surprise then to find me at the Hinsdale Setbacks on a calm, misty and quite pleasant Monday morning. What did come as a surprise was the lack of birders present with Jason Lambert being the only birder on site when I arrived at about 8:35 am. Three hours later I was on verge of leaving with nothing to show other than a couple of possible glimpses of the bird flying across the snowmobile trail some 200 yards north of the parking lot. No sooner had I committed to my final check of the morning than Jason beckoned me over.....he'd relocated the thrasher! Moreover, it was only 50 yards from the parking lot and totally unconcerned by the local fisherman drilling holes in the ice only yards from where it fed on Winterberry and Multiflora Rose. It put on the most fabulous show for the half dozen birders that had since gathered, and I last saw it disappearing north parallel to the snowmobile trail at around 12 noon.
Aside from the thrasher, the setbacks were pretty birdy today with five Rusty Blackbirds, four Eastern Bluebirds, a Swamp Sparrow and at least 90 Common Redpolls being some of the highlights. Jason also reported seeing a late Gray Catbird. Nice birds indeed but I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that there are now two Sage Thrashers just thirty miles apart in Connecticut River Valley. With birds present in Cheshire County, NH and Hampshire County, MA, surely there must be a chance of finding one lurking in Franklin County?!
First and foremost, gracious thanks go to Cory Ross for the incredible find and initial photos, to Steve Mirick for getting the word out to a wider audience and to Jason Lambert for keeping in touch during this morning's search and neatly locating the bird just before I was about to leave!
*Sage Thrasher is a true denizen of the vast sage brush flats and high desert of the American West. A relatively short distance migrant, I've most easily found them in numbers on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Mono County, California in September. They're evidently pretty hardy birds with singing males already on territory when we visit Greater Sage-grouse leks in late April around Walden Colorado, that's at a time of year when temperatures at dawn are often well below freezing. To find one in south-west New Hampshire way east of its normal range is absolutely extraordinary.
No comments:
Post a Comment