On 23 January after that first snow a nice holiday gift arrived in our backyard in the form of a Hermit Thrush and has been here ever since (Shipley's Choice). Maybe it's the guy that was not far away at George Thomas' place last year and was almost to the point of taking raisons from his hand. Despite the fact that when we were first observing him our local Red-shouldered Hawk took a pass at him, nevertheless he has continued to hang out here and was there in his usual spot again this morning. His normal spot is under a finch feeder that has unhulled sunflower seed. He picks up the scraps. Sometimes he actually goes up to the feeder and sits on the bottom shelf and eats. He sometimes sits on the suet. Since we see him every day we have had a great chance to observe his behavior. The most interesting thing to us is how he will sometimes just stand in what seems like a trance for long periods of time. I guess he's just resting but he's the only bird we have doing that. He does seem to like the seeds but we have begun putting out raisons as well. We'll be very sad to see him go. Maybe we should start a pool as to which day will be his last. I hope our Cooper's Hawk who was sitting just off our front porch this morning will keep to a diet of Juncos and Doves.  Tom & Sharon Bradford