After a more careful look at the books, I think the white throated I saw was a tan-striped adult rather than immature. The colors were distinct and striking, with the white throat segmented into three by distinct black lines. It was traveling with a black and white-headed one (the only kind I was familiar with until today). Will take the camera with me tomorrow to see if I can find it again! Virginia ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Virginia Senechal <vsenechal@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 1:42 PM Subject: Christmas at Beaver Lake To: emas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Merry Christmas everyone... After a week of not seeing much, it was nice to have some activity at the lake. Highlights were the sparrows, swamp and white throated, one of them an immature with rich buffy stripes on the head instead of the black and white. Best of all, the muscovy duck was free of the fishing line it had gotten tangled in for the past couple days! (I was worried it had swallowed a hook, with line and sinker dangling from the beak.) No owl visible today, but it was out sunning yesterday. -Virginia S Mallard 5 Pekin duck 1 Muscovy duck 1 Pied-billed Grebe 1 Great Blue Heron 1 American Coot 2 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Blue Jay 4 American Crow 3 Carolina Chickadee 2 Tufted Titmouse 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Carolina Wren 4 American Robin 4 Northern Mockingbird 2 European Starling 50 Eastern Towhee 3 or 4 Song Sparrow 6 Swamp Sparrow 2 White-throated Sparrow 2 Northern Cardinal 6 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)