As I dragged myself out of bed this morning after a fairly restless night [damned alarm cats went off at 5:00 a.m.!] and struggled to focus my vision, I went to the bedroom window that looks out over a couple of feeders and, as is my wont, did a check of the avian activity out there. "Hmm," I sez to myself, "nothing interesting, and things have been rather quiet lately." However, I was quickly--and happily!--proven wrong when I realized there was one very new visitor--a Fox Sparrow! I got a good, if short and somewhat bleary-eyed, look at him/her, and by the time I fetched a pair of binocs it was no more to be seen. I had a bit of doubt about it for awhile, given the shortness of my observation, so I was pleased when it came around again a bit later in the morning. Lovely bird, and quite distinctive, really, what with its large-for-a-sparrow size, reddish color, and grey on its neck and cheeks. Range maps show them as being only migratory in Maine. I'll be interested to note how long this one sticks around the 'hood--indeed, if it's even still here! This was my first-ever sighting, so we have one more for both the yard list and my personal life list.
In other news, some siskins are back again today. They've been quite sporadic in their visits and, of course, I have no way of knowing whether or not it's the same ones that keep returning every few days. I should perhaps get a little more systematic about my observations to see if there's any sort of pattern to their appearances.
Nice sighting! I remember seeing one in Vermont around this time of year as well; they're so much bigger than the other sparrows that at first I wondered if it was a kind of thrush until I saw the bill.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my first thought was how thrush-like it looked, but I knew from photos and illustrations what it was. Haven't seen it again though!
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