Hi Everyone,

Late this afternoon I photographed and recorded what I am 99% certain was a singing Bicknell's Thrush. I was talking to my wife when I became aware of a GCTH/BITH song coming from the corner of our yard. We became quiet and my impression was immediately that the quality was good for Bicknell's, higher pitched and more ethereal than Gray-cheeked, its song ending on a level, not descending, note. When it called, I considered it to be the thinner, higher-pitched call of a Bicknell's. Rather than stick around to feel 100% confident, though, I ran into the house to grab my camera and a new hand-held audio recorder. I managed to document the bird with both bad photos and bad audio.

Playing back the audio, I'm feeling good calling the bird a Bicknell's. Its singing is interesting in that it is interspersed with many calls, even stopping mid-song to call. In its song, I'm hearing a descending middle note and a level-to-slightly-rising final note. The calls seem clearly higher-pitched than the GCTH notes I hear in night migration. The urge to make a bird into the one you want it to be is strong, so I actively listened repeatedly trying to think whether the calls could be Gray-cheeked. I don't think so. They sound like the O'Brien flight call tracks for Bicknell's Thrush and like the couple other Bicknell's I've heard call. When I tracked down the bird, I went straight for the photo--I didn't even have my binoculars on me. In the one bad profile shot you can see rufous in the primaries and what appears to be short primary extension. 

I haven't figured out how to get the audio on my computer, but I'll try to do so. I'll also keep my audio player handy and will definitely get some other opinions on the audio this weekend. 

The bird flew south toward Weinberg Park. If you are keen to try first thing tomorrow, I would hike the trails of Weinberg off of Fairview Beach Road, which is south of Fort Smallwood. If I hear the bird tomorrow morning, I will do my best to accommodate visitors. Unfortunately, the Wilson's Warbler has not been seen since I first had it on Friday afternoon.

Good birding,

Bill

Bill Hubick
Pasadena, Maryland

http://www.billhubick.com