At about 4:45 this afternoon, I got an alert on my phone about a Western Tanager in my neighborhood. Below is the text of my eBird report:
The address where the Western Tanager was reported is literally around the corner from my house--.4 miles. I immediately walked over there. I was dubious, thinking perhaps it was an oriole (which would still be good). I walked in the woods first, thinking the bird might be there, then came out and walked down Milford to the address listed. Naturally, no bird was there, but two doors down I heard, "Pit-rick" loud, 3 times. I couldn't locate the bird before it flew out of a small tree and back into much taller trees where I lost it. If the bird had alighted in the tree where I thought it went, it would have been pushed out by the 20 robins that suddenly landed in it.
According to a fellow birder whom I've been texting, this is the third Western Tanager sighting in the county this winter, all widely separated. All have been one day wonders. What kills me is that the house where the bird was spotted has one cylinder feeder and gets the rarity, while we, much less than .4 miles away as the tanager flies, have 7 or 8 feeders and 2 birdbaths and the bird doesn't show up here. And I've been looking because today is a Feederwatch day.
County bird. Not the most satisfying sighting, but county bird nevertheless.
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