FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] new life feeder bird not a friendly visitor

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Today (Jan 19) my wife, Carolyn,  spotted a Hermit Thrush visiting one of our 
bird feeders just outside the kitchen window in Bristol Tennessee.   She knew 
it was a new feeder visitor for us and called me to come quickly to enjoy it.


In this setting, it appeared much smaller than I expected.  It was feeding 
beneath a suet cake holder, evidently picking up scraps.  It was feeding on the 
concrete patio of the upper terrace which is part of our backyard.  This is a 
very exposed location, at least 10 to 12 feet from cover.

The little guy was not very shy but very aggressive.  The Carolina Wrens, 
American Goldfinch especially the Dark-eyed Juncos flew to cover whenever the 
thrush made a quick move towards one of them.  They wanted no encounter with 
this strange vagrant.
This is a new life feeder bird for us.  

It is not a new yard bird.  The Hermit Thrush made our yard list 5 April 1987 
when one was at our driveway following a 9-inch deep overnight snow storm. 

Our home is located on a little more than an acre of hardwood hillside with 
about a dozen tall oaks around the house and much underbrush and second growth 
in natural habitat.  

It is at elevation 1560 feet and overlooks Cedar Creek and Bristol Tennessee's 
Cedar Creek City Park which is just across the street.  Our property is on the 
northeast end of Whitetop Knob which is the ridge behind the Mad Greek 
Restaurant, except we are 4 miles NE of the Mad Greek.  This is a very urban 
area in a subdivision close to the heart of the city.

The photo is not one taken of the bird in our yard.  It well represents how the 
thrush appeared to us and the angle from which we were observing it..

Let's go birding......

Carolyn and Wallace Coffey
Bristol TN