This afternoon in Huachuca Canyon I found an adult female Aztec Thrush. It was inconspicuously feeding in an Arizona madrone, opposite where I had just eaten my lunch, when I noticed the motion from its struggle to pull off a stubborn madrone flower. I spotted a somewhat robin-like bird, but with a little bit different shape and a noticeably shorter tail. In my binoculars, it was unmistakable. I watched and photographed it for about 45 minutes.

I first discovered it at 2:00PM local time, and when I left about 45 minutes later it was still feeding and preening. There were no other observers present while I was there. I looked for it again around 6:00PM, but did not see it. However, it never vocalized while I was watching it, nor did it move much or often, making it easy to overlook. The location was near the Huachuca Canyon Stream Gauge, in an Arizona madrone directly across the stream from the brown sign discussing the Stream Gauge.

By the way, at about 6:15PM, just as I was about to leave, a pair of Elegant Trogons flew in and inspected a hole in a large Arizona sycamore just upstream, where the water crosses the road and after which the road deteriorates. This sycamore shades the little parking area there, and the hole is just about directly over where the stream crosses the road.

-- Gary K. Froehlich