Larry Meade and I had excellent, extended looks at the Brewer’s sparrow this
morning at Occoquan Bay NWR as it fed in its usual area with a large, mixed
flock of sparrows. The bird was in the road closest to the water, opposite the
porta-potty. I was viewing it through my scope at about 40 feet. I did not
notice any plumage changes since December (not that I expected any). Most of
the birds in the flock of about 50 sparrows were song and white-throats, but we
also saw a chipping sparrow and two or three fields. The Brewer’s finally flew
up into a flowering pear tree, where we got more great looks of the bird
against the sky. Other birds of note were about 40 rusty blackbirds in several
places, a common loon and Caspian tern off Deephole Point Rd., calling turkeys
near the parking lot, a white-crowned sparrow at the pond near the parking lot,
a savannah sparrow along Charlie Rd., singing brown thrashers along the
entrance road and Easy Rd., singing winter wrens along the entrance road and
Deephole Pt. Rd., and a singing eastern phoebe in the vicinity of the Brewer’s
sparrow.
Marc Ribaudo
Woodbridge
