There’s a big difference between “What else could it be?” and “That’s what it is!” When Kelsey Gonzalez spotted a roughly mockingbird-sized grayish bird with a streaked breast and a downward curved bill between Ponds 2 and 3 at San Joaquin this morning, I was really tempted to call it a Sage Thrasher. After all, nothing else even came close. American Pipit, seen earlier in the day, was probably the second best, but the bill was completely wrong for that. In fact, everything else even remotely possible with that streaked a breast had a straight bill, and the bill was the most distinctive feature. Still, Sage Thrasher would be a very unusual bird for that location, and one thing stood in the way: according to the field guide, the iris should be yellow, and this bird’s wasn’t. It wasn’t completely dark, but it was what I called a hazel brown. <\/p>\n
Thank God for the Web! When I got home, I used Google image search to look for Sage Thrasher photos, and sure enough: even if the field guides don’t mention it, lots<\/a> of Sage Thrashers<\/a> have<\/a> a noticeably<\/a> hazel<\/a> brown<\/a> irises<\/a>! That clinched it for me: it was a Sage Thrasher, life bird #449 and my 250th bird in California.
\n<\/p>\n
![lots<\/a> of](\"http:\/\/sdakotabirds.com\/species\/photos\/sage_thrasher.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Sage Thrashers<\/a>](\"http:\/\/dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov\/rsgis2\/images\/Photos\/oreomont.jpg\"){kind=link}
![have<\/a> a](\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/74\/158468315_0a46dfbe93.jpg\"){kind=link}
![noticeably<\/a>](\"http:\/\/sierrabirdbum.com\/Birds\/California\/Sage_Thrasher_1_Mono_Lake_7-5-06.jpg\"){kind=link}
![hazel<\/a>](\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1259\/992596188_c614ff8bf5.jpg?v=0\"){kind=link}
![brown<\/a>](\"http:\/\/www.schmoker.org\/BirdPics\/Photos\/Thrashers\/SATH3.jpg\"){kind=link}
![irises<\/a>! That clinched it for me: it was a Sage Thrasher, life bird #449 and my 250th bird in California.\n<\/p>\nEven before the Sage Thrasher, it was a really good morning. I got there early, about 7:00 A.M., and left late. Overall I tallied 60 species including five new BGBY species<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n \tCanada Goose \t<\/li>\n\tGadwall \t<\/li>\n\tAmerican Wigeon \t<\/li>\n\tMallard \t<\/li>\n\tCinnamon Teal \t<\/li>\n\tNorthern Shoveler \t<\/li>\n\tGreen-winged Teal \t<\/li>\n\tRedhead \t<\/li>\n\tRing-necked Duck \t<\/li>\n\tLesser Scaup \t<\/li>\n\tBufflehead \t<\/li>\n\tRuddy Duck \t<\/li>\n\tPied-billed Grebe \t<\/li>\n\tEared Grebe \t<\/li>\n\tWestern Grebe \t<\/li>\n\tAmerican White Pelican \t<\/li>\n\tBrown Pelican \t<\/li>\n\tDouble-crested Cormorant \t<\/li>\n\tGreat Blue Heron \t<\/li>\n\tGreat Egret \t<\/li>\n\tSnowy Egret \t<\/li>\n\tBlack-crowned Night-Heron \t<\/li>\n\tTurkey Vulture \t<\/li>\n\tOsprey \t<\/li>\n \tWhite-tailed Kite \t<\/li>\n \tCooper’s Hawk \t<\/li>\n\tRed-shouldered Hawk \t<\/li>\n\tRed-tailed Hawk \t<\/li>\n\tAmerican Kestrel \t<\/li>\n \tPeregrine Falcon \t<\/li>\n\tAmerican Coot \t<\/li>\n\tBlack-necked Stilt \t<\/li>\n\tAmerican Avocet \t<\/li>\n\tSpotted Sandpiper \t<\/li>\n\tLeast Sandpiper \t<\/li>\n\tLong-billed Dowitcher \t<\/li>\n\tRing-billed Gull \t<\/li>\n\tWestern Gull \t<\/li>\n\tHerring Gull \t<\/li>\n\tMourning Dove \t<\/li>\n\tAnna’s Hummingbird \t<\/li>\n \tNuttall’s Woodpecker \t<\/li>\n\tBlack Phoebe \t<\/li>\n\tSay’s Phoebe \t<\/li>\n\tAmerican Crow \t<\/li>\n\tCommon Raven \t<\/li>\n\tTree Swallow \t<\/li>\n\tBushtit \t<\/li>\n\tMarsh Wren \t<\/li>\n \tBlue-gray Gnatcatcher \t<\/li>\n \tSage Thrasher \t<\/li>\n \tAmerican Pipit \t<\/li>\n\tYellow-rumped Warbler \t<\/li>\n\tCommon Yellowthroat \t<\/li>\n \tSpotted Towhee \t<\/li>\n\tSong Sparrow \t<\/li>\n\tWhite-crowned Sparrow \t<\/li>\n\tRed-winged Blackbird \t<\/li>\n\tGreat-tailed Grackle \t<\/li>\n\tHouse Finch \t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s a big difference between “What else could it be?” and “That’s what it is!” When Kelsey Gonzalez spotted a roughly mockingbird-sized grayish bird with a streaked breast and a downward curved bill between Ponds 2 and 3 at San Joaquin this morning, I was really tempted to call it a Sage Thrasher. After all, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1001654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001654"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1001659,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001654\/revisions\/1001659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/k43.pbase.com\/o6\/18\/757118\/1\/78276885.seSmNh00.IMG_1886_sath1.jpg\"){kind=link}