Harris' Sparrow Update

Darius Ecker (dariuse@abs.net)
Sun, 25 Oct 1998 20:49:07 -0500


I was one of the people with Bonnie this morning on her Sparrow search.
This bird, a first winter Harris' Sparrow was very cooperative and allowed
us to view it while it fed quietly on the ground for nearly an hour. We had
extended views through the scope. We photographed it in the morning. I shot
a roll - all I had with me - using a 500mm lens.  Some of us who had access
retruned in the afternoon and relocated it.  It was last seen at around 4:00
PM today.  There's plenty of food in the area.  The only problem is it seems
to hang around a brush pile of recently cleared brush, and who knows what
the farm has in mind for that area.  If that area is left alone I could see
it hanging around.

The next problem is that hunting is allowed on the farm, and they really
only like to have us there on Sundays. We'll have to check with Bonnie, but
maybe she'd be willing to lead a trip there next Sunday if the bird hangs
around.  Bonnie was really thrilled.  She truely knows her sparrows well.
It took her all of 20 seconds to process this bird through her mental
computer and come up with the correct ID on a bird she had never seen
before, but already knew intimately.  The other four of use eventually
reached the same conclusion, but she did it quickly and correctly.

One of the most striking things about this bird was it's size, seeing it
dwarf a White-crowned.  Once this afternoon it was next to a Song Sparrow
and the song looked kinglet-like.  It's large pink bill was also
distinctive.  The crown had dark lateral streaks, the side of it's head
being a plain tan with a dark spot behind the ear covert.  The thoat was
white (though some dark specs were visible through the scope) and there were
two thin dark brown malar stripes that connected the base of the bill to a
dark necklace-like splotch at the top of it's white breast. The rump and the
uppertail coverts were a plain brown/gray color.  It had two thin white
wing-bars and the tail long and squareish.  It fed mostly on the ground
eating seeds while we watched.

So, hopefully this bird will act like the one Gail mentioned and hang around
all winter so lots of Maryland birders can see it.  At this point, we'll
settle for until next Sunday !

Good Birding,

Darius Ecker (dariuse@abs.net)

Columbia, Maryland USA