From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Fri Oct 1 21:45:33 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i924h7jg029933 for <[[email protected]]>; Fri, 1 Oct 2004 21:43:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.coastside.net (iris.coastside.net [207.213.212.14]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i924gDVC029885 for <[[email protected]]>; Fri, 1 Oct 2004 21:42:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <[[email protected]]> Received: (qmail 26944 invoked by uid 88); 1 Oct 2004 21:42:11 -0700 Received: from unknown (HELO ?66.81.73.180?) (66.81.73.180) by mail.coastside.net with SMTP; 1 Oct 2004 21:42:11 -0700 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express for Macintosh - 4.01 (295) Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 20:22:01 -0800 From: "Garth Harwood" <[[email protected]]> To: South Bay Birds <[[email protected]]> Subject: [SBB] Chipping Sparrows continue; Grasshopper Sparrow X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5b1 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]] > Mime-version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit After work today (10/1/2004) I returned to the small pond inside Gate 5 at Monte Bello OSP. The mixed sparrows up there continue to be intriguing - I feel like I'm in a challenging winter-sparrow seminar, with the birds themselves as the teachers. At 4:45 PM the pond was (as usual) quiet when I arrived with a few faint se-e-e-p notes coming from deep cover. Golden- and White-crowned Sparrows were abundant; a few Song Sparrows complained. Eventually a number of Savannah Sparrows popped up from the rushes and coyote bush. As usual, however, the shyest sparrows revealed themselves only in flight as they disappeared into the extensive grassy slopes to the east. This time I pursued... About 5:30 I was on a west-facing slope about 1/4 mile east from the pond (after some low-intensity bushwhacking) when I heard a series of short, sharp but weak calls from ground level in the tall Harding grass which abounds there. Very small sparrows began to flush up but kept settling deep in the grass without providing useful looks. Eventually this flock - about 15 birds in all - moved to the nearby live oaks a bit farther east. They kept to cover in the trees but I waited another 10 minutes or so and they came back down to the grass. Twice more I flushed them to trees and shrubs, eventually getting some first-rate looks at 6 or more Chipping Sparrows, all winter-plumaged, except one which was still in juvenile plumage. It is possible that all 15 birds were CHSP; I could see no differences among them in flight, but I could only verify a maximum of 6 individually and simultaneously when perched. On the second occasion when the whole flock flew to tall cover a separate sparrow followed from a slightly different spot and settled on top of a low coyote bush well away from the others. With patience I was able to approach to 30 ft. This bird was very different: a complete white eye-ring in an otherwise weakly patterned face, no discernible moustachial or malar stripes, narrow central crown stripe flanked by broad but not bold, wide crown stripes of a shade somewhere between brown and gray, no streaking at all on breast or flanks, a rather golden shade of buffiness suffusing breast and flanks, with a paler belly; very short tail, pinkish-gray bill: a Grasshopper Sparrow. I had been on the lookout for one here since getting my best view of this species ever at the pond on 8/ 30. I have also been intrigued by David Suddjian's find of a GRSP near here last December. It will be interesting to see if any of these birds overwinter up here. --Garth Harwood _______________________________________________ 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]]