Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 08:48:49 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "D.H. Michael Bowen" Subject: Sharp-tailed Sparrow identification Comments: cc: Frank Witebsky , Arlene Ripley In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20021218122811.00abba20@64.38.115.52> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Re Arlene Ripley's nice photo of a Sharp-tailed Sparrow at Flag Ponds, my vote is for Nelson's. The Montgomery County Chapter of MOS had a very germane program on sparrow i.d. Wednesday evening, given by Frank Witebsky. Frank rightly warned that pictures and text in the various field guides, even the newer ones, cannot be 100% trusted to help you i.d. every bird you come across. Nevertheless . . . . . This one looks to be Nelson's for several reasons: 1. The buffy color on the side of the throat and on the upper chest appear to be about the same shade. 2. The buff chest color stops abruptly, nicely defining the light-colored belly. I agree that the dark streaks and stripes lie somewhere in the never-never land between sharply defined and fuzzy. To me, they are toward the sharply defined side of that continuum, more characteristic of Salt-marsh. Interestingly, this particular bird shows more than a suggestion of a central breast "spot" or smudge. Frank pointed out to us last night that sparrows in several genuses (geni?) can show this, either regularly or occasionally. Mike Bowen Bethesda >At 03:15 AM 12/18/02, Norm Saunders wrote: >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: >>Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 7:10 PM >>Subject: DC Area, 12/17/02 >> >> >> > Hotline: Voice of the Naturalist >> >>.........At Flag Ponds Nature Park, Calvert Co, MD, on >> > Dec 11, two AMERICAN PIPITS were accompanied by a SALTMARSH >> > SHARP-TAILED SPARROW. > > >Okay, I have to confess there has been some controversy over the ID of >the Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow. As I mentioned in my original note, >we had hoped pretty much decided) that the bird we were looking at was >a Nelson's. However, I got another opinion and the Nelson's ID was >nixed. Since then four more people have looked at the photos and all >reports so far favor Nelson's. So, I have put two photos on my website >so everyone can look at it and hopefully we can nail the ID down. The >two photos are dark but I think show pretty good detail. > >http://nestbox.com.rare3.htm. > >All opinions appreciated. > > > > >Arlene Ripley >Calvert County, MD >aripley@nestbox.com >http://nestbox.com > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= D. H. Michael Bowen, Ph.D. Consulting Services for Technical and Professional Organizations 8609 Ewing Drive Bethesda, MD 20817 Tel./Fax.: 301-530-5764 e-mail: dhmbowen@yahoo.com web: http://www.consultants-consortium.com/DHMichaelBowen.html ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================