Spring before last, I started to prune back an overgrown wax myrtle that had gotten way out of hand when my son noticed a nest.   He checked and there were eggs inside, so we stopped and left it alone.  It was a few days before I finally saw a bird on the nest.  It turned out it was a brown thrasher.   I watched it for weeks … looking in that direction every time I left the house or came back home.   Eventually, I saw the pair … one would stay on the nest all the time while they other was away or perched nearby.  I listened for any sights or sounds that the eggs had hatched … and then there was a bad storm with heavy rain and strong winds.  The next day the nest was laying on the ground and there was no sign of any eggs.

Until today, I had not seen another brown thrasher.  One of the feeders that I had filled up yesterday was empty again, so I went out to fill it up.  The temperature was just above freezing … a heat wave … so I took my camera and sat down on the front steps.  The juncos and titmouses were soon darting back and forth between the trees and the feeders … the suet feeder was visited by both downy woodpeckers and red-bellied woodpeckers … and the wrens were hopping around and pecking at the seeds scattered in the snow beneath the feeders.   I heard a rustling under the holly and azaleas that are near that wax myrtle (which I finally got pruned last fall).  I could see leaves been literally thrown out of the way and then I finally got a glimpse of the bird that was making so much noise.  And there it was a brown thrasher … I only got a couple of chances to capture an image.