This morning while walking Rufus I had a late Ammodranus sparrow on Freese Road. It was in the thin fringe of taller grass along the north shore of the small pond just north of Liddell Lab. While watching it, I talked myself into identifying it as Nelson's Sparrow (the expected fall migrant in this area, although mid November would be a notably late date here for Nelson's), but it didn't look right to me. After I returned home I realized that it might have been something much better. A small posse assembled at the site in late morning and early afternoon, but to my knowledge the bird was not relocated. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine it traveling very far (although of course it might migrate tonight).
Here is the description/account that I submitted to eBird: 1 Ammodramus sp. The one that got away. I flushed a small, short-tailed sparrow from the narrow fringe of taller vegetation on the north border of the pond by Liddell Lab. I thought it might be a Savannah, but wanted a better look. It flushed again and flew to the northwest corner of the pond, where it perched in a fairly open spot, facing me, in a clump of tall grass. The light was decent (although not directly behind me), and the bird cooperated by staying put, but Rufus as usual was working against me, pulling me this way and that. It was instantly clear that the bird was not a Savannah; my first thought was to wonder what it was, but I settled on Nelson's because of the relatively bright head colors. I knew that it was late for Nelson's and it looked odd to me for that species. I idly wondered what subspecies it might be and whether the date would play a factor in this. We walked around that corner of the pond, flushing this sparrow back towards where I first had seen it, on the north side of the pond. I didn't think about it again too much until I got home and thought some more about subspecies of Nelson's. Sad to say, it only was at that point that I recognized that its features were a better fit for LeConte's than Nelson's. (Chump city!) Distinctive features: Broad buffy tawny supercilium (this was one of the things that confused me early on - it was bright, but did not jump out as "orange" as Nelson's typically do) and sides of the throat. The sides of the crown were dusky or blackish. The center of the crown (seen well when it looked straight at me) was narrowly white or whitish (d'oh!). There was a prominent dark line behind the eye, curving down into a broad black mark on the rear edge of the auriculars and framing a gray spot on the side of the face (anterior portion of the auriculars). The breast was bright tawny buff (same as the supercilium), with at best thin streaks, and sharply cut off from the white belly. I did not note the color of the flanks, but the striking feature of the flanks is that these were prominently marked with relatively thick blackish streaks. I did not clearly note the nape, but on the other hand, I didn't see any indication of a gray collar. The back was sandy brown, streaked with black. I did not note the color of the lores. The tail was a typical of Ammodramus, relatively short and "spiky". Other than being a small short tailed sparrow with a bright face pattern, there isn't much about that suggests Nelson's - not as "orange" as Nelson's, not as dark or as rich brown above (back, wings), no whitish streaks on the back, the very prominent dark flank streaking, etc. Grasshopper is ruled out by the flank streaking, tawny supercilum, gray auricular spot, etc. tss -- Thomas S. Schulenberg Research Associate Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca NY 14850 http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/home http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist voice: 607.254.1113 email: [email protected], [email protected] -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
