Yesterday morning I got up and headed down to the park.
It was sunny but cold, there was a heavy frost on the ground and a bit of black ice in places.
I walked down to the harbor and looked around out on the breakwater. I looked around to see if the Red-throated loons, that I had seen for two days in a row, were down there. I did not see them but when I was just getting ready to leave I turned around and I was a loon swimming down the harbor towards me. I looked through my binoculars and saw that it was a Red-throated loon so I got my camera out and took some photos of it and watched it for a while. After I was done watching it I walked back and head down to the park.
I walked through the park not really seeing anything out over the ordinary. Just as I was getting to the battle site bench I was another Red-throated loon close to shore. So I stopped and took some pictures of it for a bit then I continued around the park.
As I got the estuary I saw there were a lot of ducks there so I stopped to look and see if there were any there that I did not expect to see. I saw One Ring-necked duck which is more of a fresh water duck but I have seen them on salt water a few times. I also saw the female Eurasian wigeon that has been hanging out down there. After that I walked home.
After we had lunch dad went down to the harbor to do something and I was sitting watching the birds in our yard when I got a text from him saying that there was a funny looking bird at the harbor. So I got my stuff and Rowan got ready and we headed down there to see what it was .
We got down to the harbor and dad told us the bird was by the shelter so we that way. As we were getting to the shelter I saw dad a few other people on the dock looking at something in the bushes by the sidewalk, but I couldn’t see what it was so I took Rowan and we did a big loop around the bushes so that we were less likely to scare the bird away. We walked down the ramp and onto the dock.
We walked over and I asked where the bird was one of the people that were there said that it was behind a rose bushes that was there. I using my binoculars I looked around the rose bush and sure enough I saw movement and there was a bird that looked a bit like a thrush hopping around under the rose bush. I got my camera out and got some pictures of it. I thought it looked a bit like a Dusky Thrush, which is an Asian thrush, but I have only ever seen pictures of them so I was not sure. While we were there dad took a picture of his picture of the bird and sent it to someone that had bit more experience with Asian birds. The person got back to dad a few minutes later and said that it was a Dusky Thrush. We watched the thrush hop up into the rose bush and pull apart the rose hips and eat them.
Over the next hour or two several people showed up to see this very rare Asian thrush.
This morning I got up and went to the park, I didn’t see the Red-throated loon but I did see the Eurasian wigeon.
I walked along the harbor to look for the Dusky Thrush. It took me a few minutes before I found it. I watched it for a bit and talked to a few other people that showed up to look for it, then it flew away so I walked over to the airport.
I didn’t see anything at the airport so I walked back to see if the Dusky Thrush had comeback and it had so I stopped and took some more photos of it. While I watched it it vocalized some times when it flew mainly when it got scared or was getting chased by a crow (which happened a couple of times). AS it was getting a bit later I decided to head home.
Red-throated loon
Dusky Thrush
