Glad you found out what it was - the spots fooled me because every hermit thrush I've seen has been much more heavily spotted. Maybe local variations come into play here, or perhaps a young bird ??? FTM, your photos are wonderful. I feel like I can reach out and touch your bloodroots. The second to last one with the fern(???) coming up out of the dried leaves is a great shot. I did notice your bloodroots seem to have double blooms compared to mine. I can't believe your hepatica has already bloomed, I hope I didn't miss mine blooming. I actually used the Roundup concentrate on the cut ends of the honeysuckle and that didn't do it, and didn't help much at the local park which is what they did too. I've thought about cutting it down to a manageable size and spraying the leaves with roundup and then covering it with black plastic bags (which is what I had to do to get rid of some english ivy) but it will be tough to get very far that way considering how much I have. I have been digging some of it and then planting a bush in it's place but it's not feasible to do that with much of it. I am also hesitant to do too much until fall considering how many birds nest in the thickets. Too bad the emerald ash borer doesn't like honeysuckle instead ... big SIGH. That weed wrench looks like a handy tool though, and if it doesn't disrupt the ground as much as digging the bushes up than it might help in preventing new seedlings. I had a major explosion of gold finches this weekend. I stopped counting at 100 - they were fighting over the feeders so bad I did some serious ground feeding. And I think every one of them was singing and chirping, it was incredibly loud. And alot like the peepers, they would all suddenly stop and then one would start, and another and then all of sudden they would all be at it again. Very cheerful on a cold spring day. Also had 5 purple finches, all females and perhaps a young male just starting to show some color. And had a dozen chipping sparrows and three field sparrows, they make the fox and white-throateds look like giants! I was really hoping that I would get Number 100 this weekend with the cold weather but I guess I will have to keep watching.

Have you actually seen the figure of some kind of bird in your tree? If not, I'd go with the frog/toad idea too. We have lots of them around here and they typically start up when it's about to get dark. Ours give just one "quaaaaack" at a time.

tsugajunkie: I'm thinking Ruffed Grouse or Pine Grouse myself as the noise upon take off and size of the blur. Am going to read up more on the Grouse as I doubted my first thought due to the plain smooth color. tmff: It was not that large and that tree was a sapling. I am NE lower Michigan, USA. The whole woods is black peaty muck with water flowing under surface roots or just 1-3' as well as deeper springs coming to surface and seepage/running down hill filtering through two more properties to swamp on state land. I have seen and flushed, pine grouse, ruffed grouse, woodcock, turkey, partridges, snipes, a rare quail and of course bobwhites. The area sports wild berries galore such as raspberry, elderberry, currant, gooseberry, poison ivy, jack in pulpit, ferns, sage grasses, snowberry, june-berry, dogwood, speckled alder clumps, cedar cones, black spruce, tamarack, and other cone producers, etc.

I looked and looked until I found my camera to take pictures again, I have given up on my cell phone. Everyone who has tried to help me says I need to take it to the Frontier Store for help. Anyway, Annie I loved all my bird goodies. Annie sent: Penguin Socks (Clever-Just in time for the Holidays) Cardinal - Kitchen Towels (Cardinals are my fav.) Feather earrings-thanks Gift card for seeds-I find much pleasure looking for seeds on line so this will be fun! Thank you Annie, sorry the post office gave me such a fit over this pkg. The funny thing is they had another pkg there for me from Oct. Yes Oct. Upon opening it I found it was from Susan. Sorry Susan I never knew it was there. It was filled with chocolates, thank you so much. They sure are good. Shirley