Today I did the Hustisford CBC - I have the section between Hustisford and Juneau in Dodge Co., including the area around Lake Sinissippi (Eileen Worman did Hustisford and immediate environs.) The cute little wispy layers of fog between Madison and Columbus became thicker layers the closer I got to Hustisford, and were down to the ground by the time I got east of Hwy 26. I was pulling in to the Tri-Par gas station as the rest of the counters were just pulling out. Eileen and I coordinated who was doing what roads, and I went to the east edge of the circle, since the sun was burning off the fog in that direction. Got off to a good start with a flock of Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs, but had only the usual suspects for most of the rest of the farm-field country and small rural subdivisions. Finally, while driving down Wildcat Rd. off County E northeast of Hustisford, I spotted a very reddish bird flit out of a bush to feed on the roadside where grass had been scraped by a snowplow. It had a spotted breast, and my first thought was Brown Thrasher, but I couldn't see it well and it flushed back into the bush when a car came by. I parked my car and got out to wait. A Song Sparrow came out to feed, and then the Br. Thrasher came back out and fed for quite a while, giving me great looks. (Naturally, my camera was back in Madison.) The rest of the day was fairly uneventful - saw pretty much all the species I had really expected (although the Kestrel was a nice bonus.) The last road I hadn't been down yet was Eagle, which runs parallel to and north of Hwy 60, between Counties DJ and E. Right away, I had a nice mixed flock by a small poultry(?) farm, including a male "Oregon"-type DE Junco. A little farther west, I thought I finally had the Swamp Sparrow I had been hoping for, but it had no rufous tones anywhere. It was ahead of me and the sun was low and quartering behind it, so I was having trouble with field marks. I remembered that I had the scope along and set that up. The bird flushed a few times and moved farther away, but I finally got on it again. After much indecision and consultation of the big Sibley, I'm reasonably certain it was a Clay-colored Sparrow. I still have to look at some photos online to be sure - little bugger was really puffed out, but had a very strong auricular mark that curved up to meet the back of the eye stripe, forming what looked like a crescent below the eye. I made a bunch of field notes. I'll get it into eBird eventually - too much other CBC-related stuff to do right now. (And more to come!) I'll be counting Juncos and Tree Sparrows in my sleep... Peter Fissel Madison, Dane Co. #################### You received this email because you are subscribed to the Wisconsin Birding Network (Wisbirdn). To UNSUBSCRIBE or SUBSCRIBE, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. To set DIGEST or VACATION modes, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. Visit Wisbirdn ARCHIVES at: //www.freelists.org/archives/wisbirdn.