Vagrant Varied Thrush very far from its home

I never developed the Pavlovian habit of checking my iPhone with every incoming text, message, ring, or voicemail. In fact, sometimes it takes me days to check.

Sunday afternoon, while grading papers for my College of the Atlantic ornithology class, my phone chirped indicating a text. For whatever fortuitous reason, I chose to look. Deb Hawkes texted two words: “Varied Thrush”.

And I was off!

Varied Thrush are a close cousin to the American Robin. While the latter is found across North America, the former are relegated to a swath from Alaska through California, all west of 115° west longitude. And here it was in Ed and Deb Hawkes’ yard! And even more amazing, this was the second one in their yard in 20 years!

It’s two mile between our homes and I think I made it there in a minute and a half. As I pulled into their driveway, I could see the bird in a pin cherry. YAY! A new species for my Maine list, my Hancock County list, and my Mount Desert Island list!

In addition to Ed and Deb being some of my dearest friends, they are both excellent birders. They activated the local birder phone tree, so within five minutes of my arrival, a few others showed up. First Craig, then Rob and Tammy, and finally Billy. For the next 45 minutes, as the sun was going down—it gets dark by 4:00 p.m. this time of year—we watched the Varied Thrush as it mingled with a flock of American Robins. They would feed in the pin cherry, fly across the yard toward the garden, then sneak back without us seeing it return.

Where their last visit from a Varied Thrush lasted months, this one was gone by mid-morning the next day. Now, all’s quiet on the western thrush.