[EBB Sightings] California Thrasher, Tilden Park

This evening (about 5:30) I went running, with no particular intention of looking for birds and with no binoculars handy.? A beautiful song caught my ear, and sure enough, I was able to find a California Thrasher briefly on a bare branch, before it skedaddled into the brush.? I had heard the same song in the same area about a week previously, but had come up empty.? This evening there was at least one other singer in the area.

The location is on Nimitz Way, very close to the 2 mile post on the uphill (west) side of the trail.? I think where I actually found it was beyond the post, but as I said, I had heard the singing in that whole stretch north of the Eucalyptus grove.

There was also a woodpecker high up in tall pines within a quarter mile of the parking lot, making quite a racket.? It was pretty far away, and without binoculars, my best guess is a Nuttall's as it was that general size and color and I saw no vertical while stripes.? 

Good spring birding, everybody.

Jay Dodge, Berkeley
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