As Bill Hubick mentioned in his post this morning, I saw what I'm pretty certain was a Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow yesterday at Truitt's Landing. I didn't get an ideal look at the bird, and saw it clearly for only about 1 second. I was counting marsh sparrows for Bird Blitz and had been seeing Seaside and Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows perched up on the marsh grasses and taking long low flights across the marsh. Then I flushed a sparrow that looked smaller that a Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed - it flew a short way and dived quickly back down into the grass.

I flushed it again and it flew to land on the edge of the road 20 yards away and faced me very briefly, showing an unstreaked breast of bright orange similar to the stripes on its face. It flew again and dived into a patch of 3-square rushes and I didn't see it again.

The bird was about 100 yards from the bay end of Truitt's Landing Road in Spartina grass and patches of 3-square, and I saw it at 8:30am. I know this is a late record but feel reasonably certain it has  to be an interior Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow.

Also, for the record I saw 8 Seaside Sparrows and 3 Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows at Truitt's. Also the King Rail not only called but walked casually across the road giving great views; a nice bright bird.

At Scott's Landing I saw 35 Seaside Sparrows and just 2 Saltmarsh Sharp-tails.

Good birding.

Dave

David Curson, PhD
Director of Bird Conservation,
Audubon MD-DC,
2437 Eastern Avenue,
Baltimore  MD  21224
Tel: (410) 558 2473
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