From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sat Nov 29 23:11:08 2003 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hAU79Pos020573 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:09:25 -0800 (PST) Received: from rwcrmhc13.comcast.net (rwcrmhc13.comcast.net [204.127.198.39]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hAU78Fg8020513 for <[[email protected]]>; Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:08:16 -0800 (PST) Received: from 204.127.197.113 ([204.127.197.113]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc13) with SMTP id <2003113007081301500pmse4e>; Sun, 30 Nov 2003 07:08:13 +0000 Received: from [24.6.247.252] by 204.127.197.113; Sun, 30 Nov 2003 07:08:12 +0000 From: [[email protected]] To: [[email protected]] (SBB Chat Group) Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 07:08:12 +0000 Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> X-Mailer: AT&T Message Center Version 1 (Oct 27 2003) X-Authenticated-Sender: YmlyZGVybW9tQGNvbWNhc3QubmV0 Subject: [SBB] Swamp & White Throated Sparrows and others on 11/29/03 X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+ Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Hi: Today, I birded the Palo Alto Airport area (which is accessed via the trail which passes the education center at the Palo Alto Baylands park). About 50' past the last coyote bush (about half-way) along the runway, where the vines have creeped over the reeds and weeds to create a matted effect, I found the Swamp Sparrow at about 10:30am. On a previous visit, I thought I had seen one, but not being sure, I returned. This time, I know I saw one. It was acting differently than the Gold-crowned, White-crowned, Savannah, or Lincoln's Sparrows (all of which were present), in that it was creeping along on the thicket slowly, mostly out of sight, not popping about or flitting away at the slightest disturbance like the others. During the one time it perched, I could see a strong buffy vent and flank area, a distinctly medium-light grey face and a central grey crown stripe. It's wings and tail were rufous, but not as bright as it appears in the Rufous-crowned Sparrow. It had streaking along the chest and flank area, wider than Lincoln's. It didn't perch at all like Lincoln Sparrow's upright posture on top of a plant, but perched within a multi-stalked shorter plant, at times peeking out. At one point, when a bicyclist annoyed it, it called in a soft zee sound of medium-high pitch. The most notable was that, like Song Sparrow, it held it's tail aloft and twitched it, but much more rapidly than Song, and it did so whether feeding or perching. Soon after, a sparrow came out to feed next to the path. I noticed it's yellow lores first, but was confused because it had no black stripes indicating Golden-crowned, nor streaky facial pattern like Savannah, but a pattern and coloring similar to an immature White-crowned Sparrow. When I noted it's white throat, I knew who it was. I took one pretty good picture which can be found at: http://community.webshots.com/user/birdermom Other birds seen (not counting the most ordinary) were: Lesser Yellowlegs, Western Meadowlarks, a SHY female Ring-necked Pheasant and a Loggerhead Shrike (see picture) trying to eat a small crab leg. Other birds seen from the 1st parking lot during low tide were Glaucous-winged Gull (see picture) - 4 were seen at one time on 11/26/03, along with 5 WesternxGlaucous-winged Hybrids and a pair of Fox Sparrows. Total of 59 species were seen in 4.5 hours, beginning at 8am. Good birding, Jean Myers _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]