On October 1, my wife and I drove to the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood to visit the Apple Store.  Upon leaving the store my wife wanted to do some shopping and I decided to wait near one of the main intersections of the mall walkways located outdoors but very surrounded by buildings.  This particular area featured a fountain that, at irregular intervals, briefly ejected streams of water out of three tubes that rose into the air and then fell back on river rocks below.  The fountain feature was round and approximately 10-12 feet in diameter.  There were about four surrounding beds with the usual landscaping-fare plantings… hardly an environment that would attract any interesting birds!

I passed some of my time breaking off small pieces of a dog treat and feeding them to a male Brewer’s blackbird (with only one functional leg) and its mate.  When my wife returned from shopping I pointed out the blackbird and as we stood to leave she spied a small sparrow in one of the flower beds directly behind us.  It was standing rather quietly among some of the plantings no further than 3-4 feet away… in other words, I was virtually towering over it.  She noted it wasn’t the expected House sparrow and I took a closer look.  It was a Lincoln’s sparrow!

I can’t imagine what a Lincoln’s sparrow was doing in that environment.  In fact, until just a few years ago, I wouldn’t have been sure that I could have mounted a successful expedition to find one!  Sibley notes that it is found in “grassy, weedy, and brushy areas, often near water”… which is exactly where I now know to look for the species.  But the only part of that habitat description that applied in this instance was the water of the fountain… which didn’t even include a standing pool of water.  And since the fountain and associated planting beds were at a main intersection within the mall, people, including small active children, were walking all around the sparrow’s little island of refuge.