Townsend's Solitaire - Boone County

[weatherbird58]

While trying to get some computer work done this morning,  I was looking at a bluebird on a nest box in the front yard.  A gray long-tailed bird landed briefly on the nearby mailbox post, and the difference in shape was quite different between the birds. I quickly grabbed my binoculars as it flew up along a maple tree trunk. Noted white eye ring and somewhat buffy tone to undersides, small dull wing patch and white outer tail feathers. Townsend's Solitaire again this fall/winter season!  The solitaire jumped out to an open branch and I quickly got a poor quality photo (bird in the shade through the window and backlit by blue sky).  It flew off and it hasn't been seen in over an hour.

 

Karl Jungbluth, 2 miles south of Boone