FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Harris' Sparrow

["Robert Ake" <akeneff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    Saturday as part of the Rarieties Roundup on the 
Eastern Shore of Virginia, Bill Keith and I were covering the Eastern Shore of 
Virginia National Wildlife Refuge.  At about 10 am as we worked our way 
along the Butterfly Trail from the parking lot by the bunkers to the refuge 
visitor's center, we encountered a group of White-throated Sparrows.  We 
looked through them hoping for a White-crowned 
Sparrow.  Through a brushy tangle I spotted a bird with a 
very buffy face.  It moved out a little allowing me to see that it was an 
immature Harris' Sparrow.  I ran back to the car to get my video camera 
while Bill kept watch.  When I returned we tracked the bird for about 10 
minutes during which time I got some acceptable videos.  It was clearly a 
big sparrow, and the buffy-orange face with a large pink bill was the most 
arresting field mark.  The brown of the top of the head was peppered with 
black.  Two black mustachial marks bordered a white chin with a black 
spotty triangular bib extending down onto the breast.  There were a few 
dark flank streaks and the back had black streaks as well.  The bird 
actually came out onto the mowed grassy walkway of the trail where we had 
unobstructed views.  The location of the bird when we left it was 
approximately halfway along the trail near where a group of small locust 
trees border both sides of the trail.  There was a single cedar on the west 
side of the trail.  The best advice if you go to look for the bird is to 
search carefully through flocks of White-throated Sparrows.

    To continue the sparrow stories we had great looks 
at several Vesper Sparrows at the entrance to the parking lot at the GATR 
tract.  On the way home we stopped on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel 
where the Common Eider continues off island 4 and where a beautiful Ipswich 
Sparrow was studied on island 3.

 

--- Robert Ake

--- akeneff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

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