[cobirds] Re: House Sparrows
On Sunday, April 15, 2018 at 8:51:32 AM UTC-6, Dave Leatherman wrote: > > Here are some random thoughts regarding the House Sparrow discussion: > > 1) Birders care about, and are interested in, all birds. > > 2) House Sparrows are unevenly distributed across the landscape, seasons > and time. > > 3) Being somewhat "colonial" they succumb to disease and predation issues > typical of species that occur in numbers in one place and time. > > 4) eBird can be used for more than a source of intel on how to home in on > rare species. > > 5) Birders, at least a subset of us, can't resist sliding down the > slippery slope of statistics. > > 6) House Sparrows are named for a reason and much of the time prefer.. > areas with human houses (*Passer domesticus*). > > 7) When cost and safety (5-10 years from now?) preclude birder travel to > exotic places like Kenya, Costa Rica, and Cottonwood Canyon, we can still > be entertained, learn new things and observe/photograph beauty in our > backyards and personal patches of open space or "wild" habitat. > > > Perhaps the most interesting thing I've ever read about House Sparrows is > their penchant for bringing still smoldering cigarette butts to their nests > as a source of smoke to reduce nest ectoparasites of threat to the birds > and their young. Because they often build their nests within the outer and > inner walls of human structures, this leads to them being a major culprit > in the starting of structural fires (*P. domesticus *subsp. *pyromaniacus*?). > > This was reported from metro areas in the East, and I have not heard of it > being observed in Colorado. Maybe birders who know urban fire fighters can > ask if this has been suspected locally. > > > Last Friday my planned trip to the retirement event of a friend in Salida > was stopped still in its tracks by an accident on I-25 near DU. One > quarter of the way to my destination after a lapse of half the time > allotted, I made eggnog out of broken eggs, ate the 2-2-2 breakfast at > Village Inn (over easy with bacon) and went to the Denver Zoo for the day. > Living in a bush mostly within the Steller's Sea-Eagle enclosure is a > little group of House Sparrows which seemed like an interesting > association, especially right below the sign that said, "Watch Out For > Eagle Poop". And I realized for the umpteenth time how handsome the males > of this Old World species really are. > > > > > > Dave Leatherman > > Fort Collins > > > Hi Dave, You're final comment about handsome HOSP reminded me of when I, as a neophyte birder, was out wandering in the cardon cactus near Kino Bay. I had spent probably a good hour observing and drawing a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and was still not being totally sure of my ID, and then I stumbled across this incredibly "handsome," Sonoran Desert-residing, sparrow. I thumbed frantically through my Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds, and the distinctively-marked sparrow right in front of me was NOT in there!! All was eventually resolved, but it took me awhile. Part of my take-away learning experience was that HOSPs hanging out in the alleys of our urban environments are not always as brilliantly plumaged as this breeding season male I encountered in the Sonoran Desert. May I share a bit more? Then, on my drive back to Prescott, I stopped along the Hassayampa River and was totally befuddled by a beautiful male warbler in breeding plumage. Turned out it was the same species I had been seeing all winter in Prescott, I just had no idea that an Audubon's Warbler could change that dramatically over a few weeks time. What a big learning curve I was on in those days! Best, Chuck Aid Evergreen, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/b57d2ea1-65e7-4e9a-8e6f-f2ead05828dc%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
[cobirds] Re: House Sparrows - Boulder & metro area
I'm late to this discussion, but here's some more impressions of this bird in westish Arapahoe Co In early-March 2016, I moved to west Centennial (Arapahoe) from the Cap Hill neighborhood of Denver. Immediately, I was struck by the relative absence of House Sparrows. In Denver, they seemed the default small bird around neighborhoods, with House Finches a close second. This was my impression, at least; I haven’t looked at checklists to support it, however. At Denver Botanic Gardens, where I spent most of my birding time, House Sparrows seemed slightly scarcer and around in small numbers than House Finches. In Centennial, I was thrilled that, initially, I didn’t see House Sparrows in my yard. About two weeks after moving in, I saw my first. I see them sporadically around my yard – though certainly more often than I report them. But they’re by no means a daily sight. Around Centennial, I regularly see a flock of House Sparrows at deKoevend Park, where there’s a particular bush, near a residential feeder, that’s usually filled with 15-20 House Sparrows. A few are sometimes near the Goodson Recreation Center and the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Big Dry Creek behind the Rec Center’s Parking lot. A pair is often at the top of the hill beyond that pedestrian bridge. In around 150 trips or so to Marjorie Perry Nature Preserve, I’ve never seen a House Sparrow. I’m not the only one: there are only two eBird reports of this bird at the preserve and my understanding is that those reports are of birds in the residential neighborhood surrounding the preserve, not the preserve itself. House Sparrows are around west Centennial. I might get some along the Big Dry Creek Trail or Willow Springs Open Space. But if I were doing a “big day” in my home birding circle, I could miss them unless I made a special trip to that single bush in deKoevend. More compelling than my impressions, though, is what eBird data says. Assuming I haven’t made any mistakes in compiling this data (though I may have…don’t quote me on this), here’s eleven years of eBird data for Arapahoe County, summarized so as to show the percent of all checklists that include House Sparrows and the average count of House Sparrows on those checklists that include the bird. This is 25,000+ checklists worth of data. The table shows that, over the past ten years, House Sparrows were reported most frequently about five years ago. But, when seen, they seemed to show in higher numbers a decade ago. This year, House Sparrows are reported less frequently than at any point over the past decade (though perhaps these numbers increase as spring, summer, and fall birding come on?). And relatively few are seen when the bird is in fact reported. Keep this in mind: I just summed and averaged numbers. A more careful analysis would take into account all sorts of other things – effort, distance covered, the fact that eBird use has changed dramatically over time, etc. And this is not nearly as sophisticated an analysis as Doug Eddy did for Colorado Springs with the CBC data. HOSP Percent of Checklists that Include HOSP Average Count (When Present) 2008 11.2 8.9 2009 15.7 9.2 2010 12.1 7.3 2011 16.4 5.9 2012 15.2 7.2 2013 20.4 6.8 2014 18.7 5.3 2015 16.8 6.2 2016 12.8 5.4 2017 13.2 5.3 2018 8.4 4.9 - Jared Del Rosso Centennial, CO On Monday, April 9, 2018 at 11:48:40 AM UTC-6, ouzels wrote: > > Denver Audubon just received a call from a woman in Lafayette with a > unique subject: where have the House Sparrows gone? > > She says she used to have as many as 80, but now she sees only a pair or > two, sproadically. They check out her yard and continue on somewhere else. > Have any of you experienced a diminishing numbers of House Sparrows? > > > Hugh Kingery > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/d8dec404-3223-4bb6-b5b1-44b604b42c1a%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
