Yesterday (Sunday) morning Mike & I set off in search of the Greater
White-fronted Geese and, happily, found them still present where previously
reported. I got photos of them as well as a couple of one of several
White-crowned Sparrows hanging out in a bush just before we got to the ponds.
I've only seen those twice before, and that was in CA and WA, never here. Maybe
they're more common in central VA than in NoVA, but it was exciting for me to
see
them.
So I have finally seen these geese and can stop hoping every strange hybrid I
see
with a white face is one! Many thanks to Allen Larner for telling me how to get
there and letting me know they were still present on Thursday.
While there, we encountered John Edmonds, I think he said, also down from the DC
area to see the geese as well. He told us the Lark Sparrow was still hanging
around Brennemans Lane, so we figured since we'd driven all that way, we might
as
well see if we could get a better view of it than the first time, when we only
saw it through lots of brambles. Many thanks to John for reminding us how to get
there.
We got to the pond around 4:00 and saw plenty of sparrows - all of them Song.
There were stretches of activity and singing, and then stretches of silence and
seemingly no birds at all. A Field Sparrow showed up and honored us with his
lovely song while he posed for a couple photos. At one point Mike spotted the
Lark Sparrow briefly, of course while I was up the hill on the other side of the
trees. I was determined to see it, but as it got later, I started to think I was
going to miss out. Finally at 5:30 I announced loudly to the pond, "Fine! I
didn't want to see it anyway!" as we headed back around the pond for one more
look before going across the road to the car. To my complete surprise, it
worked!
Just then, the Lark Sparrow landed on a branch out in the open, and started
singing his little heart out - "Wait! Here I am!" or maybe I just imagined that,
but I was very excited to finally get such a good look at him, and even be able
to take some photos this time. He moved from branch to branch, affording me all
kinds of photo ops, and you can see the best of them, along with the geese, the
White-crowned Sparrow, the Field Sparrow, and some random swans all here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/109741461563251778436/StuartSDraftVA?authuser=0&feat=directlink
The Lark Sparrow stayed out in the open on branches and on the ground, all
visible from the road side of the pond (the view is shown in the second-to-last
photo in the album) for around 10 minutes, capping off a great day of birding.
A couple yard notes:
A junco has visited under my feeders for the last three days, after seeing
hardly
any there all winter.
And I've observed that the robins have started actually singing just in the last
week, as opposed to just making robin-y calls and chuckles.
Happy birding!
Ashley Bradford
Alexandria, VA
