Last month I discovered what I believe to be a haw tree that was growing along a road above the Samish Flats.  There was a steady stream of American robins coming and going to eat the berries in the trees.  I took many photos, a few of which I am displaying here.

About a week ago, this American robin wandered into the yard and began pulling earthworms from the ground!

I have never known robins to eat seeds, even if they are scattered on the ground.  However, strangely enough, their cousins, the Varied thrushes, seem to include them in their diet.  The Varied thrushes seem to come down from the mountains when we get snows in the lowlands, probably in search of food.

We’ve had a male Varied thrush in the yard for 2-3 weeks and I’m still trying for a good photo of one this year.  In the meantime here’s one I took recently.

But the best part of this story is a bird related to the initial observation of the robins in the haw trees.  I photographed a bird I initially thought was a Cedar waxwing.  I didn’t have a good view of the bird nor did I get a good photo.  But when I got back home and processed my photos I found that I had observed, and photographed, a Bohemian waxwing… only the second I’ve ever seen and the first I’ve ever photographed!