Forward: White-throated Sparrow

["Utah Birds" <utahbirds at excite dot com>]

 Date: Saturday, October 19, 2002 at 07:49:36
From: Julie VanMoorhem
Subject: white-throated sparrow

I birded Willard Bay Friday, Oct. 18, looking for the White-throated Sparrow the Byers reported earlier in the week. I thought I saw the bird twice but neither time was a definitive look so I kept trying--for about an hour! After walking out to look at the shoreline (a flock of about 20 Bonapart's Gulls and a flotilla of Common Mergansers) I came back to the boardwalk near the fallen tree and heard some singing. I crawled through the tree to a bench and just sat; after about 10 minutes my patience was rewarded--the White-throated Sparrow came out of the bushes on the west side of the semicircular, former campsite and I got great looks at it before it flew into the bushes on the east side. Other birds were in the same bush so I waited to see them--mostly White-crowned Sparrows but then a White-throated appeared again. I momentarily wondered if there were two, but decided the first one just came back while I was looking somewhere else.

After I left the campsite, I walked around the north side of the boardwalk area and heard the magpies making quite a ruckus, so I entered the boardwalk area from the east and walked to the area with the fragmites (there's a Red-winged Blackbird nature signpost there) and started scanning the west edge. Lo and behold, there were two White-throated Sparrows in my binoc field at the same time and a possible third--I never got the yellow lores on this one but everything else looked good. So much for rarities usually coming in singles!! It was great. Soon after, the sparrows jumped down in the fragmites and I didn't see them anymore.

Other birds: Orange-crowned Warbler, Cedar Waxwings, Hermit Thrushes, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hairy Woodpecker, Double-crested Cormorants, White Pelicans.

Nothing much on Antelope Causeway--Eared Grebes, Northern shovelers, Avocets, and an albino Eared Grebe.

Good birding y'all,
Julie

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