Birders,

After reading recent emails about Brewer's Sparrows in unusal locations I
was surprised today when I found one singing near the intersection of
Beetlestone Rd and Benvoulin Road in Kelowna. I had stopped to scope a
distant heron colony and heard the birding singing. It was in a willow hedge
row alongside a large grassy field. The bird remained relatively hidden, but
I did catch a quick glimpse of it as it sang from the top of a bush. My
feeling is that this bird may have been of the "Timberline" race, based on
song alone. I've heard many Brewer's Sparrows in the typical sagebrush
habitat in the South Okanagan and USA and have never heard one that sounded
quite like this one. The song was much more bell-like than the buzzy song I
associate with BRSP of sage country. In Beadle & Rising's "Sparrows of
United States and Canada" no differences are noted in songs between
"breweri" and "taverni" subspecies. I have seen and heard "Timberline"
Sparrow before on top of Stone Mountain in N. BC but this was many years ago
so I cannot recall the song quality. Does anyone else have a refernce
stating song differences between these two subspecies?

Also today I checked the Chichester Bird Sanctuary and was impressed by the
numbers of migrants still present. The most interesting was an Olive-sided
Flycatcher, perhaps only the 5-6th record for the park. Also there were
Western Wood-Pewees, Yellow Warblers, Wilson's Warblers and an impressive
assortment of swallows. An apparent Violet-green Swallow X Barn Swallow
hybrid was the highlight of this group. The bird was seen only in flight.
The underparts were a pale buff, lighter than your average BARS. The tail
was slightly longer than a VGSW and was dark with some subterminal white
spotting. The rump had the typical patches of VGSW but they were a buff
rather than white. The face was buffy also. I'm not sure if this combination
has ever been noted before or not. Also there was an interesting Northern
Rough-winged Swallow that had a very distinct white forehead. I've seen this
bird at Chichester before so it must regularly visit the park.

That's about all,

Chris Charlesworth
Kelowna, BC
www.avocettours.com

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