Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Swainson's Thrush at the Little Miami Bike Trail

I got up early this morning and headed over to the Little Miami Bike Trail hoping to find a few new spring migrants. Rain had been predicted, but instead we woke to sunshine, and the sun kept shining all morning and day! The birds along the river corridor seemed just as happy with the weather and were singing in celebration. So, I knew when I stepped on the trail and immediately saw a Baltimore Oriole singing high up in a Sycamore Tree it would be a very good morning. From that point, the birds just kept coming. I'll post photos over the next couple of days of the birds I found, but tonight I'm devoting the post to a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a Swainson's Thrush.

I knew the Yellow-billed Cuckoos were in town because I had read reports of them on the Birding in Cincinnati Web site, but after three and a half hours of seeing and hearing many other birds, the cuckoo was still a no show. Earlier that morning, while eating breakfast, I had read an article by Kenn Kaufman called "Two-and-a-half Cheers for Bird Feeding" in the May/June issue of Bird Watcher's Digest. In it, Kenn had written, "Right now it's early May, and I know...sometime this month, I'll hear Yellow-billed Cuckoos again, chortling in the treetops." So with that info tucked into the back of my mind, I guess I had secretly put the cuckoo on the I-want-to-see-that-bird-and-I-want-to-see-it-now list. I had seen wonderful birds all morning long and was resigned to not seeing the cuckoo, and I thought I was totally cool with it, but as I got closer to the parking lot I noticed a lot of tent caterpillars in the trees and that made "cuckoo" pop back into my head. "Cuckoos love tent caterpillars..." was the thought forming in my mind when I saw a silhouette that made my heart jump. No way! I totally felt adrenalin surge right through my body as a positive ID registered in my brain. (I hate to admit it, but that "discovery" adrenalin feeling is pleasantly addictive.) Finally, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo for me.

...now...as if that wasn't good enough, after he got tired of my clicking camera, he flew over my head in the tree above me and made that crazy knock, knock sound, which thrilled me...BUT...then I heard a musical little water drop plop sound. It's a very distinctive sound (more like a "sound effect" than a actual bird's song). As I searched through the brush and bushes by the river, I saw him. A Thrush! I've often heard Wood Thrushes (they were singing their exquisitely beautiful song all morning), but this was not a Wood Thrush. This was a Swainson's Thrush. I've heard a Swainson's Thrush singing on the trail only three times in the last two years. Their song is even more beautiful than the Wood Thrush's song, so I always record when I've heard it. The Wood Thrushes sing on the slopes of the hill, but the Swainson's song comes from the brushy areas closer to the river in the hidden hollows. Adrenalin surge, click...alright!

Swainson's Thrush