Our Brown Thrasher is back!
Cleon and I love all the birds that use our yard, the feeders, and the bird baths. But I think our favorite is the Brown Thrasher. We started out about 10 years ago with one bird in the yard off and on throughout that spring and summer. Within a year or two, it was a pair who then nested. And for the past 3 years we have had two pairs.
Usually, the first sighting we have of these birds each spring is their singing from our neighbor’s trees and also from the peak of her roof. And this bird is quite the singer. He is related to the Northern Mockingbird and if any of you are fortunate enough to have them in your neighborhood or where you are birding, you know how distinctive and lovely their songs can be. The Brown Thrasher is almost as good a singer. These trees and that roof are both good vantage points over their nesting area which is our front yard. One nesting area is a small, but steep hill which goes from our yard to the lake. We cleaned out this hill about 8 years ago and got rid of the invasive honeysuckle and in its place, we planted two native viburnums. These two bushes are now full grown and with them are volunteer elderberries from our bushes in the back yard, wild black raspberries, some poke weed, and several tall grasses all mixed together and holding that hill firmly in place. And the Brown Thrashers love this area – one pair nests here. Right across the drive from this wild area is a long row of shrubs I planted: witch hazel (Hamamelis), winterberries (Ilex), blueberries, another big viburnum, serviceberries (Amalanchier), lilacs, and two Harry Lauder Walkingsticks (Corylus). This long border is mulched and this is where the other pair nests.
Just a few days ago, a day after we heard the first male thrasher singing his heart out from our neighbor’s trees, we were sitting at the kitchen table looking out over the front garden, the wild area on the hill, and the shrub border, when all of a sudden, a small explosion took place in the garden. I had just finished the early spring deadheading and mulching of that garden and at the far corner, mulch and some small clippings from the deadheading were being thrown up into the air and every which way. A thrasher! Gathering nesting material! So we will hopefully have at least one family again this year. And you can picture us sitting at that table and grinning!
Brown Thrashers are messy birds when foraging. They are drawn to mulch and plant litter and throw it every which way to find something tasty. Once they arrive, we generally have to sweep the mulch back into place along the driveway every day or so but that is a small price to pay for these beautiful, entertaining birds.
And wait till we open the second camera onto our large birdbath out front – which should be in a few weeks.
