FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow in Jefferson County

["Ben Yandell" <by@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Major Waltman called to say he had a Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow at Hays
Kennedy Park (near Prospect) about 10:30 this morning.  Mary Walter and I
also found the bird about 6:45 tonight.  

The bird stays along a narrow, unmowed ditch that runs parallel to the
soccer fields.  We saw it across from the soccer field that has orange goal
posts.  (If you stood midfield in that soccer field and walked toward the
river, you'd cross the part of the ditch where we saw the bird.  We first
saw the bird by some tire tracks where someone had driven across the ditch.)

We got a good look at the bird in a spotting scope.  It looked like Sibley's
interior adult:  beautiful bright orange face, dark gray central crown
stripe, plain gray nape, well-defined buffy-orange breast band with narrow
vertical stripes, streaked back.  The bird flushed fairly easily, but did
not stay in view long, tending to drop quickly back out of sight near the
base of the grasses.

Thanks, Major!

Ben Yandell
Louisville