Sunday 10 January 2010

Tree-mendous sparrows

Arranged to meet Rich down at the estuary this morning for a bit of sparrow-hunting.
I was delayed due to a welcome Skype-chat with my brother Paul from Guernsey, and by the time I arrived Rich had located the big junco flock along the long hedge.
Thankfully they weren't as far along as yesterday and although fairly difficult to work through thoroughly, Rich had managed to determine that there were TWO American tree sparrows present. Cheers to Rich for the attached pic.
I was eventually able to get ace views of this lovely pair but boy, did it take some work! Also amongst this 70-ish strong flock were a few house finches, song sparrows, couple of Bewick's wrens, towhees and a Lincoln's sparrow.
A juv northern harrier was hunting over the marsh and then the adjacent fields.
Flickers, belted kingfishers etc were in the area and Rich had seen a shrike prior to my arrival.
We tried to find the golden-crowned sparrows, in the hope of relocating the white-throated and they too took some finding. Eventually we came across them (along with Mike Ashbee) near the viewing platform, but unfortunately there was no sign of the WT up until 12.30pm when I left at least.
Up to 4 white-crowned sparrows were with this flock plus further house finches, Bewick's wrens, juncos, towhees, song sparrows etc.

Late Breaking News....
White-throated sparrow relocated by Rich near the platform about an hour after I left.

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