I think BROWN THRASHER has been reported earlier this season at Sapsucker, but this morning at 730ish, one was perched in a 20' high shrubby tree just north of the lawn at entrance to power line cut (that is, right across from the 2nd parking lot), but was more easily seen from the 3rd parking lot looking South. (I noted the tree since there are much taller ones available, but this guy seemed happy at a lower height, maybe due to the wind gusts.) He sang quite a repertoire, seemed to be flushed by either a bus or a loud pedestrian (screaming into his cell phone while I was trying to record, sigh), but then returned to the same perch and started in again. He (the thrasher, not the pedestrian) does a lot of Robin, and they are responding, so it took me a second to realize it was a mimid after he threw in a variety of other chortles and impersonations.
While standing there, first a female EASTERN BLUEBIRD, then a brightly colored M appeared, inspected me inspecting them, and seemed to be puttering between the tree by the chain and the undergrowth next to the parking lot. I didn't have time to check the marsh today, but yesterday spent half an hour at this same time of morning listening to the VIRGINIA RAIL who was singing almost constantly from the same place as we heard him earlier this week. Again, I heard no response from another rail. ______________________ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
