FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Double figure sparrow day

["Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EPPC OOS KNPC)" <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx>]

Last Saturday, March 18th, I saw 10 species of sparrows plus Eastern Towhee and 
Dark-eyed Juncos on the family farm in eastern Jefferson County. The list 
included

2 or 3 American Trees still hanging in there
1 Chipping in alternate plumage and singing
3 Field 
1 or 2 Vesper -- a brisk north breeze exposed the reddish-brown shoulder on one 
very nicely
10-12+ Savannah
2 Fox -- singing away near the feeders
35+ Song
2 Swamp 
20 White-throats
2 White-crowns

Also, on Friday, while we were unloading a wagon load of straw bales that had 
been parked inside one of our open-ended barns, I noticed a nearly completed 
Song Sparrow nest that had been tucked away between two bales about 7 feet off 
the ground. The wagon load of bales had been parked there inside the barn for a 
couple of weeks. Interestingly, I have seen the local Song Sparrows build nests 
like this well inside the ends of the barns in loads of hay on several 
occasions over the years; one I even recall seeing before I really knew what a 
Song Sparrow was way back in the early 1970s. How such a curious behavior gets 
passed along down through the sparrow generations is one of those amazing 
little things that will always intrigue me. If we had not disturbed this 
particular nest, it would have set an early date for clutch completion for the 
species in Kentucky by at least a week.

bpb, Louisville