May 6, 2022, began with a beautiful male Wilson’s warbler appearing next to the watercourse (which has now been repaired and almost completed, just in time for the migration!). Unfortunately the bird left before I was able to obtain any photos of it. A morning session in the yard provided no new migrants, but as has too often happened in the past I observed two birds with significant leg problems.
A Golden-crowned sparrow seemed to be coping with its handicap rather well, moving across the ground with little impediment. However a male American goldfinch was having difficulty landing and hanging onto a perch. I’m at a loss to understand how these leg injuries seem to be so prevalent in bird populations. While I obtained photos of these birds the photos failed to reveal the extent of their injuries.
In previous blog posts I believe I listed the number of sparrow species we had in the yard over the winter. However, in the light of a special visitor this day (May 6), I’m going to relist the species and give their current apparent status.
Spotted towhee (1-2 pair)
Dark-eyed Oregon junco (one pair)
Fox sparrow (gone)
Song sparrow (gone)
White-crowned sparrow (1-2 pair)
Golden-crowned sparrow (4-5, soon to leave)
House sparrow (too many!)
That makes SEVEN species we’ve had this year, but wait… there’s more! On May 5 I kept thinking I was getting a glimpse of a tan morph White-crowned sparrow, but every time I would see the bird it would quickly disappear back into the bushes. On May 6 I finally was able to train a pair of binoculars on the bird and saw the diagnostic (but subtle) yellow lores on the bird. This meant that it was either a White-crowned sparrow or a Savannah sparrow. Due to our habitat the odds were overwhelmingly for the former but I wanted a photograph just to be sure that a Savannah sparrow, which is a spring/summer migrant to the greater area, hadn’t just dropped out of the sky! It took me considerable time to obtain a photograph because the bird wasn’t fond of coming out into the open. However, I was determined to document the visitor and my patience and persistence finally paid off. So without further wordiness, here are photos of our EIGHTH sparrow species for the yard this year… a White-throated sparrow!
