Hello to all our RC & BCBC friends, Hope this finds all of you well. Yesterday the family and I headed to the Breaks for a picnic and a short hike. We had a nice picnic but our hike was abbreviated by the heat and humidity. After leaving the Breaks we decided to drive the spillway area at John Flannigan Dam. The birds weren't very acitive but we did manage a couple of noteworthy sightings. They were, very good looks at a perched Black Vulture and also a perched Red Shouldered Hawk that my wife noticed very close to the highway at the entranced to the Garden Hole. This morning my daughter Alyssa and I checked the Bluebird boxes on the Early White Trail. While we were checking the last two boxes on the trail I noticed a sparrow-like bird in the edge of a field. I almost dismissed it as a song sparrow without raising my binoculars. I'm glad I didn't. The bird was slightly darker and had grayish coloring on it's back and also had a pale but very noticeable yellow stripe over its eye. After ruling out other possiblities (and calling Roger when we got home), I decided that what we'd seen was a Savannah Sparrow, which is a life bird for me. I kept a checklist of what we saw this morning. It follows this message. Looking forward to seeing all of you soon, The Owens family - Daryl, Angie, Alyssa and Emma Dismal River, VA > 26 species > > Turkey Vulture 4 > Red-tailed Hawk 1 > Mourning Dove 12 > Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 > Eastern Wood-Pewee 2 > Eastern Phoebe 4 > Blue-headed Vireo 3 > Blue Jay 2 > American Crow 10 > Barn Swallow 2 > White-breasted Nuthatch 1 > Carolina Wren 3 > Eastern Bluebird 12 > American Robin 16 > Gray Catbird 1 > Brown Thrasher 1 > European Starling 8 > Black-and-white Warbler 1 > Yellow-throated Warbler 1 > Eastern Towhee 6 > Chipping Sparrow 3 > Savannah Sparrow 1 Bird was observed from approx. 15 yds. with binos. > Observed yellow eyebrow and grayish brown upperparts. Ruled out other > Emberizids by behavior, range and habitat. > Northern Cardinal 6 > Indigo Bunting 4 > Brown-headed Cowbird 4 > American Goldfinch 6 > > View this checklist online at > http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14699343 > > This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)