From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Tue Jan 4 17:53:17 2005 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id j051oXGn023551 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 4 Jan 2005 17:50:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail07b.vwh1.net (mail07b.vwh1.net [131.103.218.112]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with SMTP id j051nGAf023491 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 4 Jan 2005 17:49:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from www.hiddenvilla.org (209.238.180.140) by mail07b.vwh1.net (RS ver 1.0.95vs) with SMTP id 3-0667319668 for <[[email protected]]>; Tue, 4 Jan 2005 20:47:49 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <00a301c4f2c7$954112a0$[[email protected]]> From: "Garth Harwood" <[[email protected]]> To: "SBB" <[[email protected]]> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 17:40:47 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1409 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1409 X-Loop-Detect: 1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5b1 Subject: [SBB] Grasshopper Sparrow, Santa Teresa CP 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]] Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by plaidworks.com id j051oXGn023551 At 1:30 PM yesterday 1/3/2005 I was very much surprised to encounter a cooperative GRASSHOPPER SPARROW at Santa Teresa County Park. I had been ascending the Stiles Ranch Trail from the Fortini Rd. entrance and things had been very quiet until I reached the point where the trail first closely approaches the rock wall/barbwire fence which separates the adjacent IBM property. There is also a pole-mounted nestbox there with the number 32 on it. As I approached the wall I heard the rather musical calls of a ROCK WREN and paused to see if it would come out from cover. It did, and so did a pair of RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROWS. When another small, pale bird emerged from somewhere along the rock wall I took it for another ROWR and focused on it only because I am fond of the wrens and don't get to see them much. But it was the Grasshopper Sparrow, sitting in the open on the lowest strand of wire at about 50 ft. for almost a minute. As it was facing me, the unmarked whitish belly and warmly buffy breast and flanks were obvious, instantly ruling out Savannah Sparrow. Over the next 20 minutes the solitary bird spent a lot of time in grass clumps, but popped up to the wire fence or an open shrub several more times. Eventually I was able to approach to 20 feet and study it in detail from a variety of angles. It had the "flattened" head shape typical of the species with a proportionally large pale bill, complete eye ring, but no discernible yellow spot in the loral region. The crown was distinguished with a narrow pale median stripe bracketed by a wide brownish stripe to either side. Face was predominantly buffy, and this time I remembered to check for the dark spot at the rear of the auricular area (check). Nape was finely streaked. Wings were intricately patterned but lacking actual wingbars. An oddity was that there was orangy streaking at the sides ("armpits"?) and down the buffy flanks to the belly, very much like the "adult Florida" bird pictured by Sibley. Legs and feet were pale pink. The grayish tail was unpatterned. The rest of my walk was relatively anticlimactic, but there were 10+ WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, four more RC Sparrows, and a pair of Rock Wrens at about a mile from the trailhead. Three WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS foraged overhead, as well as a couple of very high swallows which I could not ID to species (not Barn though). If you go up there during this monsoon, be advised that the trail grows very sloppy past the first half-mile. There is the ever-present prospect of ending up on your backside in the clay. The good news is that you can leave those pesky ankle-weights behind; your boots will grow heavy enough to provide plenty of exercise without them. --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]]