On December 30, 2001, Ted Gardner found a female Varied Thrush at a feeder in his backyard on Meadow Heights Drive in Bracebridge and reported it on the Muskoka Bird Board. On Dec 31, with Ted's permission, the sighting was posted on Ontbirds, the Ontario rare bird email list. On the following 3 days a steady stream of birders from around the province visited to see the bird. It visited the Gardner's backyard frequently for the four days eating seed on the ground under the feeder. Thanks Ted and Robyn for keeping the feeder full and leaving room on their driveway so birders could watch for the bird from their cars.

Thanks to Harold Stiver of Paris Ontario for these photos of the Bracebridge Varied Thrush. They were taken on Jan 1, 2002 using a digital camera attached to a spotting telescope. This method of photographing birds is know as digiscoping. Harold uses a Pentax 80 scope with a fixed power 18X eyepiece that gives a wider field of vision and more light than the standard 20-60x zoom. The digital camera used was a Nikon Coolpix 990 connected to the scope by a mount purchased online from Eagle Eye Zoom in the UK. Click this link to see another of Harold's photos taken later in the day in Algonquin Park.Gray Jay