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Subject:

Lincoln Monument birds, 3/13

From:

"FELLEY, JAMES"

Reply-To:

FELLEY, JAMES

Date:

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:54:34 -0500

Yesterday, my lunchtime walk in the area of the Lincoln Monument and
Tidal

Basin produced many birds, but nothing startling except the Song
Sparrows

(see below).  Robins and Common Grackles were everywhere, and starlings

are starting to hang around nest holes and display.  Crows are calling

to each other, and since the American Crow 'begging' call can sound like

a Fish Crow, it's getting hard to distinguish the two.  More details and

highlights

 

Constitution Gardens

   Pied-billed Grebe (1)

   American Kestrel

   Black Vultures (2)

   Ring-billed Gulls

   Several Eastern Phoebes

   Dark-eyed Juncos

   Strange Song Sparrows*

 

DC Veteran's Memorial

   Northern Flicker

   More juncos

   A few White-throated Sparrows

   Regular Song Sparrows

 

Tidal Basin

   Lesser Scaup (about 20, all males)

   Double-crested Cormorants (6-7)

   Ring-billed Gulls

   Several Greater black-backed Gulls

   (1) Herring Gull

   More regular Song Sparrows

 

The strange Song Sparrows in Constitution Gardens attracted my attention

with their behavior.  Rather than skulking and hopping, members of

this flock were running with their heads and tails up, like robins!

Some were even flycatching.  I thought for sure I had found a different 

sparrow on the Mall!  Close inspection showed that they were perhaps 

a bit more gray than the locals, with perhaps weaker chest striping.

Nothing I would have commented on if it were not for their behavior.

None sang.  Elsewhere on the Mall I found regular, singing, skulking,

hopping, chestnut-colored Song Sparrows that I assume are the locals, 

while these I propose are migrants from some other, northerly area.

 

Jim

 

Jim Felley

Smithsonian Institution