Diane Morton, Ken Kemphues, and I went looking for sparrows at the Freese Road gardens on Monday morning. Diane found a VESPER SPARROW on the fence at the east edge of the large Dyce Lab corral. We had long, close views of the bird's distinctive face and head, plus one diagnostic glimpse of white outer tail feathers when the sparrow flew. We last saw the bird flying back into the center of the community plots.
I am very fired up about this sighting. This was the first Vesper Sparrow I've ever seen on this side of Freese Road! Otherwise, the species mix was much the same as the other day, with apparently fewer SAVANNAH SPARROWS (we saw only one), more WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS (15+), still many SONG SPARROWS, two or more SWAMP SPARROWS, and three or more WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, but no Chipping Sparrows nor House Sparrows today. TURKEY VULTURES streamed by both northbound and southbound all morning. We also saw one SHARP-SHINNED HAWK and a COOPER'S HAWK. After about an hour in the gardens, we crossed over to the west side of Freese Road and looked in the tall grasses by the pond edge. Diane found a FIELD SPARROW here. We also saw a backlit PALM WARBLER along the path between the hedgerows near the Liddell Lab parking area. Mark Chao --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
