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Dec. 21, 2007 - Besides seeing both male and female CARDINALS again at my feeders, and the imm. WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, for the first time I took a good close look at my presumed ³CHIPPING SPARROW² and concluded, after looking at Sibleyıs nice illustrations, that in fact it is very probably a CLAY-COLOURED SPARROW!, which would make a nice addition for our Christmas Count, since it has been here daily since before Dec. 15th. Iım going primarily on the lack of contrast between the rump and lower back, both of which are the same shade of olive-brownish. I didnıt really check out the moustache marks yet. Now I need someone like Richard Stern, Harold Forsyth, et al., to come here and patiently try to confirm my new diagnosis. The illustrations in the new Nat. Geogr. field guide seemed less useful to me. Both Richard Stern and Bernard Forsythe independently visited our yard and feeders today. I donıt know how Richard did, but Bernard scoped the chippy/clay-coloured and is sure it is a CLAY-COLOURED SPARROW, based not only on the uniformly brownish lower back and rump, but also on the light-coloured lores (vs. dark lores or an extension of the dark line through the eye right to the beak). While Bernard and I were watching, a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK alighted briefly in the hedge adjacent to the feeders, then flew off (my first sharp-shin of this winter -- we frequently see a red-tailed hawk in our yard and neighborhood). Also at home Pat saw 2 FLICKERS at once (only one male has been regular), and I saw at least 6 bl.-c. chickadees (compared with what we thought were 4 previously). On the dykelands between Greenwich and Port Williams, I saw one ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (prob. light-phase but facing away) and one red-tailed hawk. Cheers :-) from Jim in Wolfville, 542-9204 --------------------- Jim (James W.) Wolford 91 Wickwire Avenue Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4P 1W3 phone (902)542-9204 (home) fax (902)585-1059 (Acadia Univ. Biology Dept.) e-mail <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> ---------------------- ³...... the Earth .....belongs as much to those who come after us as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do, or neglect to do, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or to deprive them of benefits which are theirs by right.² - John Ruskin ---------------------- ³In wildness is the preservation of the world.² -- Henry David Thoreau ----------------------
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