We have had a new regular bird under our birdfeeders this past Project Feederwatch season. I wasn’t able to identify it right off the bat since sparrows are some of the more difficult birds to distinguish in my feeders. I was finally able to take a really good photo of him and that certainly helped.
He is actually a Sooty Fox Sparrow which is found here on the West Coast. This was the bird that kept flying into my back window…in fact I got to look at one really close because it was dead on my back deck from a crash into the window. (That was a sad day!) I used a photo of the bird this time in my journal just to make it easy. I followed the prompt from last month’s newsletter Nature Journal Topper to list at least five things we observed about our bird. My rule is to get the page done in your journal and not worry about how fancy or creative it is…
This website has some excellent images of this bird: Sooty Fox Sparrow.
Have you observed any new birds yet this spring?
Love your new design. Just wanted to stop by and say hi and that your design is really neat. Thanks for all that you share.
Rhonda! I was thinking about you the other day and wondering how your family is doing. I miss seeing you around the OHC. Thanks for commenting.
A new bird at the beach I have yet to identify.
Shore birds are hard for me to identify too. Let me know if you figure it out!
Yes, three harbingers of spring just in the last three days! (We still have a lot of snow here…) We saw Canada Geese and red-winged blackbirds on Monday, and song sparrows on Tuesday. There have been reports of fox sparrows in our area, but I suppose they are different from your sooty variety.
The All About Birds website says that the East Coast Fox Sparrow is “reddish overall and white on the face”. Yes! Canada Geese and Red-wings! The other thing I have noticed here is that most of the Dark Eyed Juncos are absent from the feeders…they are the bird we see the most during the late fall and winter. Seasons are a changin’.