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Subject:

Great Sparrow viewing at Pickering Creek

From:

les

Reply-To:

les

Date:

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:06:34 -0500

Between 4:00 and 4:45 today the lighting conditions and moderate
temperatures with little wind lent to just plain excellent viewing of
sparrows at Pickering Creek Audubon Center in Talbot County.  The best
viewing site was at the west end of the sparrow habitat field that lies
between the barn and the viewing platform of the closest wetland pond.  The
end of the field is bounded by a drainage ditch that holds several trees and
shrubs.  These provide excellent resting places for the sparrows.  Across
the drainage ditch is a field, now harvested, that held milo as the crop
last season.  By standing in the milo field, with the sun to one's back,
most of the sparrows are seen 'head-on' as they rest on the trees and shrubs
after foraging in the milo.

 

Sparrows seen, with estimates of the numbers:

 

White Throated   ~ 30

White Crowned   ~ 20

Song                    ~ 15

Savannah           ~ 15

Field                        1

Junco                      4

Vesper                    0  (could not locate this bird today, though it
had been seen yesterday)

 

Nearby there was a Northern Harrier using the top of one of the Bluebird
houses as a feeding station while it dined on a Junco.

 

This morning, during an earlier visit looking for the Vesper, a
Sharp-shinned Hawk was also in the area.

 

LES ROSLUND

TALBOT COUNTY

EASTON, MD