Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I ventured over to the Elma area to check a few key locations,including our primary stop made along Wakefield Rd.,where we relocated the weird Spizella sparrow originally found by Bill Tweit and Tom Schooley on the 1st of March,as posted onto the WA Birbox by Bill Tweit. We located the bird on two seperate occasions today,but our best and longest observation was made between 2:45pm-3:45pm in which lighting and weather conditions were the most favorable. The bird was well observed and photographed during this time,as it activelly preened and loosely foraged mainly alone with several Song and Lincoln's Sparrows nearby,in which the particular bird was noticeably smaller,longer-tailed and paler in overall contrast. We came to no conclusion to the exact identity of the bird,although we strongly leaned more towards Clay-colored rather than Chipping Sparrow,which of the two species Bill Tweit also mentioned or a very possible hybrid due to the gray rump,which a Clay-colored Sparrow lacks. The gray rump and nape were very visible in all observations,including in flight and the bird did NOT show any indication of the black line through the face from the bill to the eye,which is a single field mark noticeable in all ages of a Chipping Sparrow. The bird appears to be an immature bird going by the oveall pluamge and coloration of the bird,which strongly appears very warm buffy overall,depending on lighting conditions and warmest in tone on the striking face pattern. The lores and supercillium appear buffy as well,not white or very pale such as in an adult bird. The bill is very stubby,short,and a pale,fleshy color(pink)and the upperaparts are palest in overall tone contrasting from the grayish back(with a finely streaked upperback)pale upperparts to the strong face pattern bordering the finely streaked crown. At times the crown was difficult to see if it was split,but it strong appeared to be and a partial dark malar stripe was noted on the lower face. We referred to both our sparrow reference books,but can come to no strong conclusion going by some features that both species obtain with the rump color being possibly the only visible feature difference. The particular bird of interest is very striking and worth additional observations from other birds. We checked the location on the 10th of March,but we did not relocate the Spizella sparrow but we did locate up to 2 Swamp Sparrows and up to 3 White-throated Sparrows with both species also observed by Bill Tweit on the 1st of March too. Today we located 1 Swamp Sparrow and 1 White-throated Sparrow but continuing good numbers of Lincoln's Sparrows as in our visit last weeked with up to 9 birds observed in a fairly limited area.

The exact location is as in Bill Tweit's original posting onto the WOS(WA)Birdbox onto Tweeters posted on the 10th of March in a very weedy field bordered by thicker,taller vegetation and tress along a canal north of the Chehalis River bridge and south of the intersection of Wenzel Slough Rd. and Wakefield Rd. SW of Vance Creek Co. Park near Elma. The field is on the east side of the road immediately south of a canal bridge,where a pathway leads out into the field and a small pulloff for limited parking is accessible along Wakefield Rd. The Spizella sparrow was noted about halway out in the field near the tall Western Red Cedar tree with extensive brambles nearby,but the bird flew back and forth at times east of that location,as well as forage out into the weedy stubble field.

We checked a few others areas from Wenzel Slough Rd. to Brady Loop Rd.,despite the heavy rain showers at times with some clearing too and noted a few other highlights for the day,which included the following:

Trumpeter Swan
8 along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Wood Duck
1 along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Osprey
1 along Wenzel Slough Rd. at Vance Creek Co. Park and also along Hwy.12 at Elma(presumably the same individual bird)

Rough-legged Hawk
1 bird continuing along Foster Rd.(Brady Loop Rd. complex)

Am.Kestrel
1 along Hwy.12 west of Elma

Peregrine Falcon
1 adult soaring along Hwy.12 at Brady

Greater Yellowlegs
2 along Foster Rd.

Wilson's Snipe
40+ along Wakefield Rd.(north of Wenzel Slough Rd.)

Herring Gull
2 along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Western Gull
1 along Wenzel Slough Rd.

Western Scrub Jay
1 at Elma
1 along Hwy.12 near Satsop
2 along Brady Loop Rd.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worldnet.att.net