Yeah, it’s liable to be birds for a while, though I missed my chance at some deer the other morning. I try to keep variety in mind, but at this time of year? Ya got birds.
The morning after the overnight snow storm, the sun broke out (which usually happens in NC, so credit for that at least,) and I was out using the light. The birds were extremely happy with the new selection of feeders that The Girlfriend had provided, and some of them weren’t too concerned with my presence, as long as I stayed back a bit. One, however, flew in but quickly passed, just not thrilled about my proximity, and it happened to photobomb the frame in doing so.
That’s probably enough to identify it to any semi-experienced birders, just by color and tail alone, but I got a better opportunity moments later, when it perched in a nearby tree in great light.
That’s a brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum,) and I’ve seen them plenty of times before, but their habits have made it hard to get a photo. They tend to be pretty shy, but worse, they forage underneath bushes and in foliage, rooting around in the fallen leaves and ground litter for food in a manner that spurred their name – they can make quite a racket while not uttering a sound. I’ve rarely seen them perched in trees, especially this high up, but I suspect this one was waiting for me to vacate the area of the bird feeders so it could get back to feeding.
I’ve never heard a peep out of one, or at least not to my knowledge, even though the Cornell site lists them as quite melodious, and the sound samples provided at that link are supportive of the claim. This particular individual, however, favored me with something like a cross between a growl and a hiss, a bad transmission grinding to a halt, and I suspect it was because I was right there. I’d almost switched to video, but the distance was a little large (this is cropped significantly,) and I wasn’t carrying the long lens, which I wouldn’t use for video anyway unless I was also using the tripod.
They’re largish birds, the same size as an American robin (both are thrushes,) but the bright rust color sets them apart from most other species in this area, save for Carolina wrens. I knew, when I started spotting them using the camellia bushes so often, that I’d have to stake them out for good pics, but this one was much more cooperative than usual, and provided my first decent images. There will be more.