On January 3, 2011, I was observing Evening Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls at Sue Rayano's feeders up-county when I received a call from Arlene Borko. She informed that a woman we know called to say she had an unknown bird under her feeders for the last three mornings and she can not figure out what it is. She described the bird to Arlene, but it was nothing familiar to her. When she gave me the homeowners really good description, I asked her to be ready and I'd be there ASAP! A short time later we were in a back yard in Wurtsboro when a gorgeous adult male VARIED THRUSH flew into the yard! After photographing the bird extensively, we began our negotiations with the home owner to have other birders come to see the bird. The home owner was immediatly apprehensive about having people come to her home. That afternoon, we had a small core group from our community come to see the bird. As I explained the extreme rarity of the bird and how I would like to have other people come to see it, the home owner expressed concern for her home and neighborhood. By the end of the day, she had agreed to let a few people in that day, but declined having any publicity about the bird nor any postings on the internet. She agreed to let me monitor the bird as long as it stayed providing word of it did not get out. Fortunately, those who saw it agreed to this and no problems ever occured during the birds stay. The bird remained through at least March 3, 2011 when it was last seen by me. The home owner agreed that I could submit a NYSARC report, but still does not want the location of her home disclosed. This was a fabulous bird and the only thing that would have made the experience much better would have been if I could have shared it with others. The bird did make our Christmas Count and a NYSARC report and report to ebird have been submitted. If anyone is interested in seeing photos of the bird, I would be happy to send a few to you. John Haas
-- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
