Rare thrush has Olympians all atwitter

Bird enthusiasts in Olympia are aflutter over a Eurasian thrush, apparently the first of its kind to be seen on the continent.

Eugene Revelas, 45, a birder from age 12, posted a report Monday night on a regional bird-watching Web site after he recognized a bird he saw with some robins in his backyard as a redwing, or Iliacus turdus, which he had spotted on a trip to Ireland in April.

Bill Tweit, a leading south Puget Sound birder and member of the Black Hills Audubon Society, confirmed the sighting Tuesday morning, again in a flock of robins, at a nearby intersection in the city’s west end.

By that afternoon 20 bird watchers had gathered for a look at the bird, which is slightly smaller than a robin, sleeker than a varied thrush and marked by a creamy-white eye stripe and rusty red flanks and underwings.

It’s the only documented sighting in North America of Iliacus turdus, which “could be mistaken for a funny-looking baby robin,” Tweit said.

Nomadic and gregarious, the redwing issues a “seep” call with a weak song of three or four fluty notes, feeds on worms and berries and has a maximum life expectancy of about 18 years, breeding across northern Europe to Siberia and usually wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

“This bird would have had to fly south and east across the Pacific Ocean, instead of south and west,” Tweit said.

If the redwing stays the rest of the winter in Olympia, it could draw birders from across the nation who want to expand their lifetime list of bird sightings, he added.

Whale spotters prepare to help

Volunteers will be at 28 sites along the Oregon coast next week to help spot gray whales making their winter migration to Mexico.

More than 20,000 gray whales averaging about 30 tons each are expected to make their annual move south from their Alaska summer feeding grounds to their winter mating and birthing areas off Baja California in Mexico.

The highest whale count during the winter event since record-keeping began 17 years ago was 3,152 in 1994-95.

The round-trip migration by the gray whales is one of the longest of any mammal, covering between 8,500 to 11,000 miles.

Volunteers will be at the 28 designated sites from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each of the eight days from Sunday through Jan. 2.