Townsend’s Solitaire at Whitnall Park 12/15/19

Today while watching the Packers game, I saw a post about a Townsend’s Solitaire being seen near the Boerner Botanical Gardens, at Whitnall Park. I’ve seen these birds many times before, but it’s a great county bird for the year, so I decided to try for it. Whitnall Park is only 10 minutes from me, making it an easier decision. I work from dark to dark during the week in winter, and my only time to take pictures is on the weekend, so it was today or nothing. I’m glad I went, because I found it fairly quickly, and was able to help several others find it too. At first, I saw a bird fly up to the tops of the trees. Based on the size of it and flight, I thought it might be the bird. I got my binoculars on it and it sure was! It sat way up high for about 15 minutes, singing softly and preening. Then it turned and flew down to the berry trees below. After eating a few berries, it again flew way up high, and did the same thing again. After about another 15 minutes or so, it flew down the opposite way of me. I walked around the tree line to the other side and didn’t see it. All of sudden, it pops out in the berry tree, right in front of me. It ate a few berries and a Hermit Thrush chased it off. Must have been “his” berry tree. The solitaire again few up high and did the same thing. I watched it for about 50 minutes and it went down for berries 3 times. It was pretty active. It was sunny and cold with temps in the low 20’s. Pictures below are from today.