Subject: All "Pished Out"/YELLOW CROWN SPARROW?
Date: Dec 12 10:58:51 1999
From: Lydia - LGAEBE at email.msn.com


It was a soggy, sloggy Sunday in the rain as Carol Schultz and I braved the
wet and tried some birding along the Green River making stops at the Neeley
Farm House and the Old Fishing Hole area.

We waited about an hour for the third person in our group to show up. He
didn't. He's on this list. You know who you are. Shame on you for standing
us up!

We tried "pishing out" the tweetie boids from the bushes. We got some
responses along the lines of "What the heck are you doing out in this
weather....get back in the bushes where you belong!"

We heard:

TOWHEE
SONG SPARROW
JUNCO (maybe)
CHICKADEE

We saw:
HOUSE FINCHES (four to six in two differing locations)
GOLDFINCHES (two or three)
CROWS
STARLINGS (oh yawn!) Bazillions of them at the cow barns along Frager Road
RING NECK DUCK
AMERICAN WIGEONS
MALLARDS (including one with an ugly growth on the top of its head...rather
like a small green turban)
HOODED MERGANSERS
BUFFLEHEADS

A mixed flock of gulls swarming the golf course.
MEWS
GLACOUS WING GULLS
RING BILLS

Near the Ol' Fishing Hole we heard a big crow ruckus. Glancing up we spied
a VERY DARK REDTAIL HAWK flying low and swiftly in a south westerly
direction. We weren't really sure if it was a dark morph or it only looked
that way because of the crummy light. But we did see the reddish tail.

Slogging down the road to the Marco's Landscaping we saw movement on the
ground around a bush. At first Carol thought they were English Sparrows. I
stuck around and watched and made the "pishing" sounds. One of the little
sparrows flitted up into a more exposed area of the bush.
It had a tiny trace of YELLOW above it's bill. It had a plain gray breast
and the trace of yellow above the bill. Carol got a look at this sparrow
and we are pretty sure it was a YELLOW CROWN SPARROW. Perhaps an immature
because the yellow wasn't as distinct as in the pictures.

See my next note for the other sighting.


Lydia Gaebe In Kent, WA USA
lgaebe at msn.com
Until I get a new website up, be sure and visit this one:
http://joy.songbird.com/zisa/