At first, I was going to go on a long rant on what I think about the new WordPress comments administration page, then I decided not to end our truly enjoyable migration on a sour note. The current schedule has us leaving the great state of Texas sometime tomorrow depending on how close we adhere – we are retired, schedule, smedules. For those keeping score out there, this means I am likely at the high-water mark on the top 100 Texas birders list. The last regen of the list puts me at #12 with 223 species (and 3 exotic escapees). My new friend Tim H. sits on top with his 300 tallies as he undertakes his Texas Big Year endeavor – he is off to a great start! Actually, what I am really proud of is I broke into the top 100 birders in all of US at #99. Both of these standings will start dropping quickly with our return home, but I can bask in the glory for another day ha. Oh, and it feels good to know I am only 77 species from my Average Year goal (link here).
Keeping with the celebration theme, going with a rather festive featured feathered friend.
Hit the jump to read about this surprise desert visitor.
To set the stage a bit, I already alluded to this “rarity” in the last post of 2024 – eesh, that sounds so long ago these days. In that post I featured the new lifer Rufous-Backed Thrush found at Desert National Wildlife Refuge located in Las Vegas, NV (link here). A member of the Thrush family more likely found in Central America and not officially recognized by Cornell as a North American resident (although the “sightings” map shows plenty of spots in our southwestern states). That Robin holds the 3rd spot on my easiest “chase” birds. Wanna guess what number 2 on that list is?
“Alex, I’ll take Halloween inspired birds for $200”. Oddly enough, this holder of the 2nd spot is simply because it was seen 2 minutes before the Rufous-Backed Robin was discovered. A quick study of the Desert NWR area eBird reports added these two rarities to my already large list of must-gets on our visit. I recommend always having a target list of birds wherever you go – Intrigued golden rule “Bird with Purpose”. Not to be confused with Linda’s mantra “Type with Purpose” of which I have developed a keen ear for degree of keyboard pound to subject angst level. If I can hear the keys from my den..well, stay in the den hehehe. Apologies, I digress, back to or pumpkin colored specimen.
With mental list in head so to speak, Linda dealt with getting our bird dogs ready for the hunt, while I headed out to the orchard area just left from the back of the Corn Creek Field Station visitor center. There were a couple of eBird checklists that gave this key information on where they had found the rarities – Note, Sam (link here), gave me a nudge to take a post or two and go over some of the tools Intrigued uses in the field, so look for that in upcoming offerings. Arrived at the orchard fence line and greeted two ladies that were standing there – “Lady to the left of me, lady to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with trees”. Thick trees, tangly trees, annoyingly full of dense and auto-focus defeating limbs. Fortunately, not capable of concealing a burnt orange bird with a dark blue-grey back and darker wings. “Is that the Varied!?!”
I got the impression the two ladies had been there a while and were beside themselves at the pure luck of this new arrival. The flutter of shutters commenced immediately in concert with a litany of curse words that were likely louder than any of us intended. It may be easy to see, but it was an absolute nightmare to get a clean angle on it. Trust me, you are seeing the best out of a pile of shots that ended up on the digital darkroom floor. Guessing it was around a 5 minute experience before this lifer exited stage left to make way for act two of Thrushapalooza. If those two ladies didn’t already consider me the luckiest birder alive, can’t imagine what they thought when the Rufous-Backed came in right on the heels of the Varied exit.
Time to get to some interesting tidbits about this rather striking looking Turd, sorry, I mean Turdidae. The name pretty much gives them away as kin to the Robin and the multitude of other birds carrying the Thrush qualifier. You may not know their other family members include the Bluebirds (Eastern/Western/Mountain), Veery and Townsend’s Solitaire. For those considering a visit to Desert NWR, you should add the Western Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird and the Solitaire to your target list as they are all easily found there (link here, here and here). On a personal front, the Bluebirds are quite pretty, but this Varied is downright stunning – my Halloween affinity bias may be showing through. The females are more subdued than the males with dominant brown hues instead of the darker blues of their counterparts – still easily distinguishable with their orange tailoring. Unlike the Rufous-Backed Robin, the Varied is recognized by Cornell and can be found on the western coast of the US up into Alaska with some push into the neighboring states to the east – considered scarce in southern Nevada. Based on the sightings map, they do seem to be a bit erratic during the wintering months with sparse observations all the way to the east coast – you might even say “Varied” locations. For the record, I have no idea why they were given this particular name – never give Intrigued a chance to be creative hehehe. Will leave you with a reference from Cornell’s website that indicates this Thrush is very aggressive with other birds (even in their own species) – regular ol’ cranky pants.
Need to let you go so we can finalize our trip back to the Midwest tundra – Linda has already vetoed my idea to turn around and head back to South Padre Island!
Life Intrigued 