[TN-Bird] Lark Sparrows have arrived--- McKenzie 4/22/03

McKenzie & vicinity (Henry Co.)
4/22/03

I spent a couple of hours out this morning running my local 'warbler route', 
only to have the bird(s) of the day late this afternoon completely by accident. 
Things were slow today compared to the last day I was out, although just being 
out in the gorgeous weather made up for the lack of any concentration of birds. 
I did get 9 FOS birds, some of these just because I haven't been out much, 
these were:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (3)
Swainson's Thrush (1)
Wood Thrush (1)
Warbling Vireo (1)
Palm Warbler (4- feeding together)
Worm-eating Warbler (1)
Yellow-breasted Chat (10+, there were none to be found last Thursday in their 
regular areas, today they were singing everywhere!)
Blue Grosbeak (2)
Lark Sparrows (to be discussed later)

Warbler numbers were low, so I was surprised when I totaled up to 17 species on 
the day. Of these 17 only 3 are species that aren't local breeders though. 
Warblers seen/heard today were:

N. Parula (many)
Yellow Warbler (1)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (numbers down)
Black-throated Green Warbler (2)
Yellow-throated Warbler (several)
Pine Warbler (several)
Prairie Warbler (many)
Palm Warbler (4)
Black-and-white Warbler (1)
Prothonotary Warbler (3)
Worm-eating Warbler (1)
Swainson's Warbler (1)
L. Waterthrush (2)
Kentucky Warbler (several)
C. Yellowthroat (many)
Hooded Warbler (1)
Yellow-breasted Chat (many)

Several of the neotrops that were FOS birds last week are obviously present in 
force now:
Eastern Kingbird,  Summer Tanager (only 1 singing Scarlet though),  Indigo 
Bunting,  Orchard Oriole

I had been keeping an eye out for Lark Sparrows all morning in past haunts of 
theirs, as Don Manning had caught a glimpse of a probable Lark Sparrow a couple 
of days ago. No luck though, thought they were gonna put me off for a little 
longer this year. Late this afternoon I was out in my wife's car trying to 
locate a "funny noise" she had mentioned coming from the car. I wasn't a couple 
of miles from my house, and didn't even have my binocs with me. While taking a 
shortcut back to the house, I saw a sparrow foraging along the edge of the road 
right in front of me, I didn't take notice until it flushed right as I got to 
it, but it had a chestnut face and a towhee tail, a Lark Sparrow!  It flew 
right by me at eye level so I didn't even need binocs. I went home (forgetting 
about my wife's car for a little bit) and got my binocs and camera. When I 
returned I eventually found not one, but a pair of Lark Sparrows. My time was 
limited, but I got one mediocre shot, which I have posted on my webpage. The 
link is : 
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=330&groupID=116215&folderview=&ck=
 , in the "Uncommon to rare local birds" vol. 2 photo album. Hopefully these 
birds will stay, and I can get some good digiscoped shots of the birds. This 
isn't the area I usually get them in, and in fact this is the 1st time I've 
birded this little section of road, maybe the small local population is a 
little more extensive than I realized, this being the 5th area around McKenzie 
I've encountered Lark Sparrows the past 4 years. 

Good birding!!!!!!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



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