Wow, possibly a LARK sparrow; tis the season to see the wanderers, but it
sounds more like a recently fledged SPOTTED towhee. At a glance, they
might look like a brownish, striped sparrowish bird!
Cheers,
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-

On Tue, 18 Aug 1998, Bob Mauritsen wrote:

> tweeters,
>
> I took a walk through Luther Burbank Park this afternoon, my first.
> Of course I didn't have my binocs along. But I saw a sparrow-like
> bird that had white corners on its tail when it flew away. The
> bird seemed similar to a song sparrow, and fidgited and pumped
> its tail when it saw me, just like a song sparrow might. But do
> song sparrows have white corners on their tails? If not, can
> anyone suggest a possibility for this bird? I was not very close
> to the bird, I'm afraid, maybe 20-30'; but it seemed to be brownish
> all over and might even have seemed slightly larger than a song
> sparrow.
> I had some compact binocs in my car, and I got them and came back,
> but no bird. It was along an unpaved maintenance road and the bird
> was
> perched on the branch of a small, dry, uprooted tree surrounded
> by blackberries. I heard some song sparrow-like chirps, but I
> don't know if they came from this bird. I'm mainly curious
> because of the white corners on the tail.
>
> Bob Mauritsen
> bluetooth at csi.com
>
>
>
>
>