ML150554521

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Sage Thrasher May 4, 2010 Harris Hill, Rainy River Documentation: Alan Wormington Circumstances: Myself and Richard P. Carr found thisbird early in the morning at Budreau’s Beach, which is an area considered part of Harris Hill. We just started walking south down the beach when I noticed a bird moving in a small thicket along the small sand ridge that separates the beach from a large pond. Initially I thought it might be something like a Hermit Thrush. I moved a few feet closer and spished, when the bird popped into view. One glance and I knew it was a Sage Thrasher, and I immediately announced this to Richard who was only a several feet away. For the next 5 minutes or so the bird sat still in the open, where we easily studied it from about 40 feet. Very slowly I moved closer, in an attempt to get some photographs. Unfortunately the sun was right behind the bird, so getting photos was quite difficult. Finally, the bird flew to the left (north) towards a small marsh and the forested point-of-land, but we didn’t exactly see where it went. We decided to leave it alone for the time being and proceeded further down the beach to the south. Returning about an hour later, we could not find the bird anywhere on the sand ridge. I thought maybe the bird had continued east along the shore a bit, where there are numerous cottages and open lawns, but again we could not relocate it. At the time it was sunny with no wind. I was using 8.5x32 Nikon binoculars. Description: The bird was about the size of a Gray Catbird or Hermit Thrush. When the bird popped into view I immediately knew it was a Sage Thrasher, due to a combination of drab grayish-brown plumage above (unmarked), and distinct dark streaking on the underparts (against a dirty-white ground colour). The dark bill was slightly decurved, and obviously much shorter than Brown Thrasher. It had two very indistinct drab whitish wingbars. The long tail was unmarked. The eye was dull yellow. Photographs: I took several photographs, but most are identical since the bird did not move much. Unfortunately the bird was strongly backlit, but via PhotoShop I was able to bring out sufficient detail in the submitted single photo; the end result being a not too bad photo after all. Alan Wormington July 20, 2010

Technical information

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