November 25, 2010 Following an early closing at the office yesterday, I spent two hours at Fountain Creek Nature Center & Regional Park enjoying the outdoors. While watching a mixed flock of White-crowned Sparrows, a few Song Sparrows and Juncoes, I saw a sparrow I had never seen before. What struck me was the whiteness of the underside, the brownish head and the distinct black triangle on the front. I watched and watched and compared to my Sibley's. Then, upon getting home checked other field guides and photos on line. I've thought and thought and I truly believe this was a 1st Winter Harris's Sparrow. It was found in a very birdy section of the park (for yesterday): if you are heading south on the Regional trail, where it splits at the waterfall of Fountain Creek - if you go right you continue to head south on the Regional trail; if you go left you pass through a gateway into the Nature Center area, where the pond comes right up to the shoreline. There is a small pavilion there with bike racks. This sparrow,with the others, was working the ground area near the bike racks. I spent about 10 to 15 minutes watching all these little birds, comparing the new one with the ones that I recognized.
This particular part of the park was birdy yesterday - downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadees, a brown creeper (which I watched for a while - amazing how beautiful a little brown bird can be and how well it matches the bark of the trees it forages on!), juncoes (slate-colored and oregon) and white crowned sparrows. The ponds and creek offered a lot of waterfowl - Canada geese, green winged teal, wood ducks, hooded mergansers, gadwalls, lots of mallards (the males looking very handsome). Also a couple of belted kingfishers and two great blue herons. I loved watching the hooded mergansers - one small group of about six or seven birds dove in unison and ended up popping up between a pair of gadwalls who looked a little surprises to have these little guys popping up out of the water. Then, as I posted yesterday, after stopping for a hot chocolate at the Starbucks in the Safeway at Fountain I swung by Big Johnson Reservoir and saw five swans. Nick Moore replied to me and said he saw the swans at about 2:00 p.m. yesterday and said they were Tundra Swans. There were other ducks out there but I could not id them. Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Christine A. Bucher Perched on the edge of Palmer Park, Colorado Springs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
