White-crowned sparrows?
Leaving for work this morning, rustling sounds in the frost-bitten swamp sunflowers caught my attention. I'd seen some goldfinches foraging for seeds there last weekend. They're dull in color now, nothing like their spring and summer colors. But these birds were foraging on the ground, poking around in the leaf litter. There were probably 5 or 6 of them in a small area, joined by a Eastern Towhee kicking the leaf litter.
They scuffled around a bit like the towhee, kicking the litter, bringing up seeds to eat. Their distinctive striped heads seemed to fit white-crowned sparrows, but I didn't have my binoculars with me as I left the house!
They scuffled around a bit like the towhee, kicking the litter, bringing up seeds to eat. Their distinctive striped heads seemed to fit white-crowned sparrows, but I didn't have my binoculars with me as I left the house!
Your observations of the birds are exquisite. Love your poetic style. I’m afraid we have nothing so exotic around our bird feeder, perhaps a Red Breasted Robin now and again, but mostly Sparrows and Pigeons and Seagulls. Yes, I said Seagulls. We do our gardening on an island off the coast of British Columbia, so the sea birds do fly in for food. Our daughter Hedgehog used to prop herself up against a tree with binoculars and then spend hour after hour observing the birds as they fed. The most exotic bird sighting occurred one morning as I was walking our Golden Retriever named Max. One of our neighbors has a small pond with goldfish and as we were passing her place Max froze. I stopped and looked and there, balanced on one foot, was a large Heron in the middle of her pond, with a tasty goldfish in its beak. It ate several more fish before it spread its huge wings and took off gracefully. Max and I stood transfixed. Anyway, please visit our blog, to read about our adventures in the land of composted manure and rusty trowels.
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