Yesterday I posted a report by a neighbor that she'd seen a Savannah
Sparrow. This was an important event for her, because she is a beginning
birder and had never id'd a Savannah Sparrow before. Christy's point was
not that she'd seen the first Savannah to arrive, but that she'd seen
and id'd on her own a summer arrival species.

I checked the fields of the future sports talk adjacent to our
development today, and almost as soon I crossed through a belt of trees
I head Savannah Sparrows holding forth on separate small bushes and
trees over the wide expanse of the future park. As of last Thursday
afternoon when I walked through the park there were none, nor as of last
Monday or Sunday April 3rd. I believe that the Savannahs arrived at the
park site just within the past two days. It is possible that the
Savannahs that are in my neighborhood this year represent the same flock
that was in abundance last year. That other Savannah flocks may have
arrived in Canada earlier does not, it seems to me, mean that my
neighborhood's flock must also have arrived two weeks ago.

Bill Ward
wward at cco.net
Lacey WA