Hi all,
Despite the unfavorable-looking weather I figured I should check out the
Grasshopper Sparrow(s) that were reported yesterday by several observers
from William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge. It was still raining
pretty hard when I left home, but I took a chance in the hopes that the
shower might move on in the half hour it would take to get to the
refuge.
The rain stopped and I was able to turn off my windshield wipers just as
I got to the refuge entrance, around noon. It was remarkable how many
birds were singing on and around the prairie overlook: several WESTERN
MEADOWLARKS, a passel of JUNCOS, several SAVANNAH SPARROWS, ROBINS, and
more.
After about 8 minutes of listening, a single GRASSHOPPER SPARROW started
to sing intermittently. At first it seemed to be singing about 80 yards
out from the platform (from behind a clump of blackberries that's just
about due south from the SW corner of the viewing platform). I never saw
it sit up in clear view, but I could hear it shifting position, moving
off toward the SW (where there's a dead tree), then farther back (south)
into the prairie.
After it did this circuit a few times, eventually I picked up on it
making low, fluttery flights between positions. I continued to watch and
listen for about 20 minutes until the rain started up again. Just as the
rain moved in, I saw a pale, fluttery sparrow fly in closer to the
viewing platform, landing down in between clumps of tufted hairgrass
about 50 m.
There were about seven SAVANNAH SPARROWS with earshot. One of them about
100 to 120 m out on the prairie to the south (so in the same general
direction as the Grasshopper Sparrow) was kind of hoarse and
buzzy-sounding, and didn't seem to be giving the final, lower "ip" note
after the long buzzy part of the song. Sometimes that note is just hard
to hear with distance, or if the bird is singing down in vegetation, but
my impression was that this bird was just consistently skipping that
note. So watch out for that guy if you go out there -- he sounds quite a
bit like a Grasshopper Sparrow.
However I heard the one GRASSHOPPER SPARROW clearly, enough times to be
very confident of that ID. Also the visual impression as it flew between
positions looked right for an Ammodramus sparrow. I never heard any
counter-singing that would indicate presence of a second male.
After I got home I went on Google-Earth and plotted out the locations of
the points where I heard this bird singing from (as best as I could
judge from my position on the platform, comparing to various bushes
etc.). Here are the longitudes and latitudes of those points:
-123.30564,44.42333
-123.30546,44.42300
-123.30469,44.42302
-123.30471,44.42353
-123.30491,44.42378 (*)
If you plug those into your mapping gadgets, hopefully that will help
you figure out where to look. The last point, marked with an asterisk,
is the one closest to the platform, where I saw a bird fly in just as it
started to rain. I did hear a Savannah Sparrow sing from near that spot
just half a minute later, so I have some doubt in my mind as to whether
that was really the Grasshopper Sparrow.
Anyway, there does seem to be one territorial Grasshopper Sparrow out
there, patrolling a territory more than an acre in size. That's getting
close to what you'd expect during breeding season, for good-quality
prairie habitat.
Very interesting that this guy is putting so much energy into patrolling
a territory already in March. If he is in fact an overwintering bird, he
might have to wait a long time for a female to find him ... but he sure
does have a nice patch of real estate!
Good birding,
Joel
P.S. Oh yeah, there were also some geese in the prairie restoration area
(Field 1) NW of the viewing platform, including one white goose that was
probably a SNOW GOOSE (good sized and with a non-petite bill ... but I
didn't look very carefully).
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
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