[Birdtalk] Hermit Thrush at Beus Park

[Kristin Purdy]

I saw a HERMIT THRUSH at Beus Park in Ogden, Weber County today. The park 
has hosted good numbers of this thrush classified as rare in winter in 
previous years, so it was not unexpected--just fun. I was actually pishing 
to bring a Ruby-crowned Kinglet closer and the thrush came in behind me 
while calling his "chope-chope" call.

The kinglet or another one later put on quite a show with his tomato-red 
crown feathers splayed all over his head. That brilliant color among the 
gray branches offered quite a jolt.

Other birds in the park today included Yellow-rumped Warblers, three or four 
Downy Woodpeckers, a Northern Flicker, chickadees, Spotted Towhees, robins, 
a scrub-jay, juncos, and of course, the regular water birds--the Wood Ducks, 
Mallards, Ring-billed and California Gulls, and the annoying collection of 
domestics.

I haven't been able to find the resident pair of Western Screech-owls in 
months and it's driving me crazy. I haven't even seen any fresh spots of 
whitewash and this is rather on my nerves.

Beus Park is located 1/2 mile east of Harrison Blvd (SR-203) on 42nd Street.

On another note, I had an unusual number of Mourning Doves in my yard a 
couple days ago--27. I was quite surprised because even in the summer I've 
never had more than five or six at a time. This group was contented to 
hunker down in the leaves of a flower bed while sunning. They let their 
wings droop to expose the feathers of their backs and rumps and remained in 
the area for more than an hour. I have not seen them since, but hope they'll 
be back because a couple of the birds also fed on the ground underneath a 
nearby feeder.

Kris