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
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