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a curved bill thrasher nest!!

15 years ago

I just saw a curved bill thresher coming out of my tree opuntia that is over 8 ft. tall & massive! These birds have been in the yard- seen foraging on the ground mostly- for a few years & now I see (& got some pics w/ the orange eye showing!)they are building a nest deep in the mass of opuntia pads! Such a great bird to watch & hear! The boattail grackles left for awhile this winter & some crows came back for daytime visits but the crows fly back to the Rio Grande Bosque at night. Funny how the crows all group on a telephone line at one time to discuss the evening flight & then all at once they all fly off to the Bosque at the same time in one big group! And today the FATTEST robin I have ever seen(!) taking a splashing bath in the bird bath... splashed the birdbath dry in no time!Still waiting for the neighborhood roadrunner to make an appearance yet! They can be seen scooting across the busiest intersections in the City at rush hour: run-tail down; stop-tail goes up!

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Comments (2)

bandjzmom
15 years ago
Sounds like Spring is springing at your place vieja! Congrats on the Thrasher nest. I have a pair of Brown Thrashers (our state bird) that always come to build in my neighbor's huge Knock-out Rose. They are cool birds!~~Angie
vieja_gw
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks! Seeing the nest building 'made my day'! They have seen me around now for quite awhile so hope I can get closer & get a close up of some of the nest material showing in the 'cubbyhole' in the cactus they found to set up residence.Only last year was I ever close enough to verify it did have the orange ring around the eye but the curved bill has always been obvious.

Our state bird is the funny looking & acting roadrunner! They mostly run on the ground but do fly a bit & seem to prefer to live around buildings & populations of humans. Can even kill a rattlesnake I've read. One does live in our neighborhood & likes to run on the roof peak of our house & when it sees me w/camera it almost looks like it stops to pose for me!
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From the photo of the thrasher by claire, I guess the thrashers we have here in New Mexico are a different variety; ours here have a dusty brown body-no stripes, darker back & wings, but has the very distinctive orange ring in the eyes! These that began with just one pair a few years ago that foraged on the ground under our trees, now we have a couple dozen or more in our yard/area & have become very fearless around other birds as well as our four dogs! I can get right up to their nests & 'talk' to them & they show no fear of me (or the squirrel!) at all. Haven't figured out yet why the seemingly first pair built the 2-story apt. in the tree cactus!! Sure is a secure place to nest I admit! We often get a new variety of birds for awhile, then they disappear only to have another variety come; the thrashers seem to have replaced the grackles pretty much the past two years in my yard.... yet the mourning doves seem here to stay!
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Congrats vieja! Hope you see more new birds.
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