Today I took a break to drive my fiancé to JHU in the rain. Getting to our
parked car, Erin said “hey, look at this funny sparrow.” Above my car,
perched in a row of dense junipers behind a wood fence along the an alley
behind the apartment building (Cloverhill Rd), was not a sparrow but a
darkly spotted Catharus thrush. I ran upstairs to get my camera, and
returned. We relocated the bird in the alley near the junipers. Wild
grapes growing along the fence currently bear much fruit and was perhaps
provisioning this bird. We refound the bird, as it flew across the alley
and into a dense residential yard where we got a few more glimpses as it
hopped along like an antpitta and then disappeared.

The bird was uniform brown above, no distinct loral pattern, pale
mandible, and darkly spotted below with black malars. No rufous contrast
was visible in the tail or wings, so I do not think it was a Hermit
Thrush. Despite not getting binoculars on it, I did see it from within 10
feet and believe it was a probably a GRAY-CHEEKED (or BICKNELL’S) THRUSH. 
The light was too low, and camera focus too slow to get a photo. The
timing is late or even post-migration (by a week or two) for both species
according to both the BNA accounts online and eBird bar charts for
Maryland.

Also, I saw our local PEREGRINE perch on the building just north of us
again earlier this week.

-Dan Lebbin
Baltimore, MD