This migrating songbird appeared on the wet lawn today, and didn't hang around long enough for me to obtain decent pictures. In about five seconds time, I managed to snag three images, but when I went to try to identify the critter, I wound up perplexed. This, of course, is pretty routine at this time of year, when the migrants are wearing drab traveling clothes rather than their definitive spring finery—well, the guys, at least—and birders everywhere are giving voice to a measure of autumn uncertainty. I know, however, that it's a thrush... no doubt about it... but which one? It has a white eyering... sort of... and I'm detecting a hint of warm brown, maybe even red, in the wings, so that, and the fact that I thought it was rather large, would make it a Wood Thrush, albeit a very late-migrating one. But the more typical timing, and the fact that the spots seem to blur out as they get lower on the breast and the incompleteness of the eyering, would argue for a Hermit Thrush, which is our typical bird in the autumn. I'd probably have done better had the mystery stuck around longer. Alas, it's gone and shows no sign of returning. In leaving for parts south, it's left me with a conundrum. So it goes every autumn. So it goes.