I’m not sure whether or not I’ve mentioned it here, but we’ve had a couple of shy Varied thrushes in the yard for some time this winter.  The birds usually come down to the lowlands for food in the winter when snow begins occurring in the mountains.  We’ve had a pair here (a male and female, just confirmed yesterday (Mar 5, 2017) for several weeks.  I’ve been somewhat frustrated in obtaining any good photos of them.  We see them in the yard from the house from time to time but they have been very shy and photos of either of them have been quite few and far between.

Yesterday I sat out in the yard for a couple of hours.  Under normal circumstances my hands would get too cold, but yesterday I fired up a small Zippo hand warmer (powered by lighter fluid) and stuck it in the right pocket of my coat,  With a glove on the left hand to hold my monopod, and my right hand for operating the camera stowed in the pocket with the hand warmer, I got along just fine.  Over the course of the couple of hours I got a few opportunities for photographs of the female Varied thrush.

When you can pick the birds out of the bushes, which can be a chore in itself, this is the view you might get…

But here are a couple of better views…

And here is an unobstructed view on one of the rare occasions that the thrush ventured into the open…

Sorry that the bird’s back was turned, but the birds don’t give me the opportunity to pose them!

Here’s a photo, also taken Feb 5, 2017, of another more common and less shy thrush, the American robin.  The birds often hang out together and when I see robins in the yard I begin looking for the Varied thrushes.

While I’m at it I’ll show a couple of photos of same-day visitors… Bushtits.  For the first season in the 16 years we’ve lived here, Bushtits have been coming to our feeders (suet and peanut!) several times a day.  One of these birds is a male and one is a female… do you know how to tell the difference?  (The female is giving you a clue!)