Greetings,
More details Monday regarding a fine weekend of birding on the Eastern Shore,
but wanted to post a quick message about a few sparrows.
Sunday morning at around eight AM, Tad Finnell, Eric Slaytor and I found an
adult Harris's Sparrow only a few yards from where Saturday's first-winter bird
was found. It initially offered only about a twenty-second look. Having
seen Bob Anderson's video of the immature bird on Saturday night, there was no
doubt that this was a second individual. Eric left and was replaced by Gerry
Weinberger and Jerry Uhlman. After a short search, Tad refound the adult bird,
and he and Jerry were able to photograph it at will from a short distance.
Shortly after, the immature bird was found and both of them were able to
photograph that bird as well.
The Butterfly Trail at ESVNWR was loaded with sparrows today, the best
diversity I've ever seen including a Clay-colored (with a second seen by Bev
Leeuwenburg where Brian Taber had found one on Saturday on Route 600 at the
entrance
to the Visitor's Center at the refuge), a Vesper, a few Savannahs, scores of
Songs and Swamps, a few White-crowneds, a hundred or so White-throateds,
Chipping, a single Fox, a dozen or more Fields, juncos, and a couple Eastern
Towhees. Tad and I also glimpsed a bird that was almost certainly a Lark
Sparrow,
but we weren't quite able to pull the trigger.
Earlier, just before seven AM, Tad and I did find and photograph a Lark
Sparrow along Magotha Road. The bird was on the road a hundred yards or so
beyond
the trees as the road enters the marsh. The bird stuck around much of the
morning and was seen by Jon Little, BJ Westervelt, Bev Leeuwenburg, and Philip
and Alex Merritt. In early afternoon I returned to Magotha Road in hopes of
trying to find a few more sparrow species for the day, and the Lark Sparrow was
still present around the road edges.
In my afternoon visit to the area, I trudged into the marsh several hundred
yards during low tide and found a Snow Bunting with another Lark Sparrow on a
sandy spit along the east edge of the marsh. In the marsh just a hundred yards
or so from the road near a big piece of driftwood with a white piece of
plastic stuck to it, there were five Sharp-tailed Sparrows, with one Nelson's
and
two Salt-marshes, the others unidentified. Pretty spectacular day of
sparrowing in Northampton County.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, VA
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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