Last month during migration season a little Swainson’s Thrush spent a few days in our yard. They pass through our area each year on their way to breeding grounds in Northern Wisconsin and in Canada.
The All About Birds website says about Swainson’s Thrushes: “More likely to be heard than seen, Swainson’s Thrushes enliven summer mornings and evenings with their upward-spiraling, flutelike songs. During fall and spring migration, their soft, bell-like overhead “peeps” may be mistaken for the calls of frogs.”
They are indeed very secretive little birds, but because I plant myself in front of my bay window as much as possible during migration season, I usually catch a glimpse of one each spring.
I snapped a photo of this year’s visitor and then shrieked “Ewwww!” after I uploaded it to view on my computer screen.
What IS that disgusting creature it pulled out of my lawn?! It looks kind of like a scorpion (it’s not—we don’t have those here).
Whatever it is, I’ll be thinking twice about ever walking barefoot in our backyard again…