Winter Thrushes

Quick: What do northwestern Europe and southeastern Arizona have in common?

Not a lot.

But this time of year in Tucson always reminds me of my years in northern Germany, when among the welcome sights brightening the darkening days was the arrival of the thrushes: Redwings, Mistle Thrushes, Fieldfares joined the Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, making up slightly for passing of summer.

Here in Arizona, we’re watching for a different suite of turdids, of course. It’s shaping up to be a good winter for bluebirds, I suspect, and Rufous-backed Robins are already installed at several heavily laden pyracantha bushes from Phoenix to the Sonoran border.

Yesterday morning I stood at the back of the regular Friday birdwalk in Catalina State Park, admiring with everyone else the half a dozen Western Bluebirds feeding beneath the hackberries. And then a larger thrush appeared in the sky; my mouth faster than what remains of my brain, I called it before I put my binoculars up–then quickly corrected my error. It was a male Varied Thrush, wing stripes flashing and breast band and eyestripe easily visible as it passed just over the trees. We held our breath but it just kept going, no doubt to ornament some over-watered yard in Oro Valley.

Varied Thrush is a regular low-density wintering bird over most of Arizona, but I can’t get enough of them. Maybe this one will come back to the hackberries tomorrow, when I’ll be looking for it again.

Oh, and Varied Thrush is also something Arizona and Europe have in common–though it’s a little more frequent here than there.