Yahoo,
On Sunday, October 08, at the east edge of Seahurst Park forest, I also
saw several 'not-sooty', and quite reddish Fox Sparrows. These appeared
to be intermediate plumage between one of the reddish Alaska subsp and the
distinctly reddish eastern subsp. I could hardly believe what I was
seeing, also................did call this in to Thais Bock.
Cheers to all, me2
****************************************
Maureen Ellis, PhD, Research Scientist
Toxicology Group at Roos 1, 284A
Lab/Office phone: 206-685-1938
Dept of Environmental Health, Mailstop 354695
School of Public Health and Community Medicine
University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98115

Personal Financial Analyst
Primerica division of Citigroup, Inc.
VoiceTell: 206-213-7430

E-Mail: me2 at u.washington.edu
****************************************
"Why are we now traveling into space? Why, indeed, did we trouble to look
past the next mountain? Our prime obligation to ourselves is to make the
unknown known. We are on a journey to keep an appointment with whatever
we are."_____Gene Roddenberry

On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Michael Hobbs wrote:

> By about 7:05 it was light enough to bird, so off we started (Brian Bell and
> I). The morning was warm and overcast and by midmorning had cleared to a
> beautiful day. There was no wind and no fog. You know it's an interesting day
> at Marymoor when after the first 40 species you still haven't seen Rock Dove or
> European Starling, and Red-tailed Hawk is the 50th species seen.
>
> Highlights:
>
> Green Heron 1 at the weir
> Gr. Wh-fronted Goose 3 with Canadas near west park entrance
> American Wigeon 1 male at Rowing Club
> Green-winged Teal 5 females at Rowing Club
> Northern Shoveler 7 in slough at NW corner of park, noon
> Osprey 1 over meadow, 10:00A
> Cooper's Hawk Great views as it stopped at the compost piles
> American Kestrel 1 chased by crows, E. Meadow, 10:00A
> Common Snipe At least 7 in the Pea Patch
> Northern Shrike 1 around noon near grass soccer fields
> G.-crowned Kinglet 6-8 in mixed flock with RCKI, BCCH, BEWR
> Y.-rumped Warbler Ubiquitous, almost all Myrtle's race
> Fox Sparrow Incl. 1 "RED Fox Sparrow" (see below)
> Western Meadowlark 3 in East Meadow
> Purple Finch 3 eating ash tree seeds
> EVENING GROSBEAK 1 female at Rowing Club - NEW to my Marymoor list!
>
> Picked up Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Dark-eyed Junco near the Clise Mansion,
> and had Red-breasted Nuthatch at the feeder across the street from the Rowing
> Club.
>
> All told, 54 species!
>
> The red Fox Sparrow was very much like the "red (taiga)" pictured in Sibley, if
> you discount the extreme garishness of the orange tones reproduced in [at least
> my copy of] that book. Upon seeing the bird, my first thought was that it was
> a large, extremely pale Song Sparrow. However, it had Fox Sparrow shape and
> size, and had the yellow mandibles (the bottom one almost completely yellow,
> the top one mostly yellow). The legs were notably long and pink. The breast
> and flank spotting was nicely chevron-shaped like you'd expect with a Fox
> Sparrow. It had a WHITE breast and belly except for the spotting. The tail
> was bright orange-red. The face was patterned as in Sibley - the warm gray
> ruff and face with the red auricular "arrow", and the red crown stripes.
>
> The bird appeared redder than the *iliaca* race pictured in the NGS guide -
> though we were seeing it in the open in very good light. [BTW, I think the
> shape of the Fox Sparrows NGS 3 are terrible] The bird looked very much like
> the "Eastern race" pictured in the Stokes guide.
>
> In Byers, Curson, and Olsson's "Sparrows and Buntings", it looked more like the
> picture of *iliaca* than like *altivagans* - there was considerable contrast
> between the gray and the red on the face. In Rising's "Guide to the Sparrows"
> the picture of *ilicia* seems a bit brighter than the bird we saw, but
> otherwise very similar.
>
> For someone who has never seen "eastern" Fox Sparrows, it was hard to believe
> that this was a Fox Sparrow.
>
> == Michael Hobbs
> == Kirkland WA
> == Hummer at isomedia.com
> == http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm
>
>