Tweeters:

Today, Sunday, was a perfect day for the Christmas Bird Count in the Olympia
area. I
saw over 50 species and enjoyed myself immensely. I had but one real
problem, a sparrow
that still has me wondering.

I was on Hartman road in the Nisqually Valley. Hartman Road parallels
Medicine Creek.
Just south of the point at which the road Y's and allows you to cross
Medicine Creek,
I saw this sparrow...it sat on a metal fence post. It had rusty stripes on
each side
of its crown. The center line of the crown was gray or brown. I tried to
make firm
mental notes of its markings bacause I knew I was going to have to go to the
books
(a real sign of trouble). I made a mental note that an eye stripe the same
color as
the crown stripes (rusty or distinctly red-brown) ran from the posterior
edge of the
eye back. I noted that the breast was clear, unstreaked. I noted nothing
in the way
of obvious wing bars. The upper back seemed to be similar to that of the
golden-crowned
sparrows I had been viewing, sort of streaked with light browns to very dark
brown or
black markings. It chirped away in a high pitched voice that was not
familiar to me.

I was interrupted in my viewing of the bird and had to pish for awhile to
bring it out
into view again (back on top of the metal fence post). I looked at it until
satisfied
I had burned the image into my mind and walked away. I was thinking maybe
Chipping
Sparrow. Back with my group, I was informed that Chipping Sparrows require
a detailed
description to be accepted (I wasn't really claiming to have seen one, I was
just suggesting the possibility). I wrote out what I could about the bird
and was told to consider the possibility of swamp sparrow. Now, I have
studied three field guides and I am rather discouraged at not seeing
anything that fits very well.

The swamp sparrow supposedly loses much of the reddish color to the crown
stripes during winter. Swamp sparrows also have alot of reddish brown in
the wings which I did not see. I also did not notice the mustache or white
throat contrasting with gray breast.

The chipping sparrow is also supposed to lose much of the reddish-brown
color in the crown stripes during winter. The eye stripe of the chipping
sparrow is too black and
I did not see the white supercillium.

Frankly, the head of the American tree sparrow looks closest to what I
remember. However, the dark central breast spot and the white wing bars do
not fit the bird I saw.

For me, this is an opportunity to learn a few things that will make me
better next time around. I'm sure that, now that I know what markings to
look for, I will be able to quickly focus on the most important
characteristics and come up with a fairly confident identification. As it is
now, I am a little bewildered.

I may go back tomorrow. Hope I can find it.

Kelly McAllister