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Walking around the ancient spruce this summer, DellaSala heard the songs of the birds he began studying three decades ago: the single, melodious note of the varied thrush, the high, three-part tweet of a Pacific-slope flycatcher and the rapid-fire, descending chatter of a Wilson’s warbler.

A varied thrush picked at leaf litter at the Riverview Playfield in Delridge.

A multitude of other birds feasted too, during a December snow shower: varied thrush, fox sparrow and more.

Northwest Washington lies on the border of the varied thrush’s permanent resident/breeding resident range, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Red-breasted nuthatch, spotted towhee, varied thrush, northern saw-whet owl, American robin, cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, American goldfinch and western tanager — I see them all here in the Fraser River estuary.