Dear Penny and Tweeters,
That is so nice to have a faithful White-throated Sparrow at the feeder for so long!
I miss having them at my place. I haven't seen one here since 2018.
Starting in 2003, when I first spotted one in the yard, I have seen this species on 327 days here at my place in Skagit (near Cockreham Island), usually at the feeders, but sometimes in brush, too. The best years were 2010 through 2016, when the White-throated Sparrow appeared as a yard-bird an average of 42 days a year, with a high of 73 days in 2015. Sometimes there were two of them. They usually stayed through most of April, but I did hear one singing here on May Day of 2008; that was my one and only May record for this species in Washington.
Most years, they'd show up in October and leave in April, a six-month visit.
When I was a kid birder, I decided that I ought to have a favorite species of bird. It took me only a few seconds to decide that it would be "Old Sam Peabody," and so it's been my official favorite species ever since.
This afternoon (31st March), I took a short drive to the west, to bird at Nichols Bar, just west of Lyman. Just after I turned south onto Robinson Road to go to the bar, a female MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD flew across the road, right in front of my car. She foraged from various fenceposts for a while. I left to go to the bar, birded there for fifty minutes, in utter solitude, and checked for the bluebird on the way out. I couldn't relocate her.
I keep expecting this bird to show up on my yard list. It is probably the most likely expected "next yard bird," the main competitor being the Mountain Chickadee. Now that I've seen a Mountain Bluebird west of my place, I have now seen them west, east, and south of the house. This means I'll probably spot one on Hamilton Cemetery Road to the north of here one of these days! Then my yard will be completely bracketed, at least as far as Mountain Bluebirds are concerned.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 05:28:20 PM PDT, plkoyama at comcast.net <plkoyama at comcast.net> wrote:

Tweets,It's the last day of March, and it looks as though the White-throated Sparrow that has been below our feeders since 12/5/19 will make it into April.  We've been in this Bothell condo, which is at the end of the development facing a wet wood lot, for 16 years.  This is the 6th year we've had a visit from a WT Sparrow, most often for just a few days.  In 2013, though, one stayed from 1/2-4/7.  This year's sparrow has broken that record. We also had one in Kenmore for the Edmonds CBC, and learned that rare-bird reports are no longer required for this species.  Curious, last month I    e-mailed Matt Bartels to inquire about the probable increasing appearance of the sparrow.  Matt replied that Birds of WA reported 6 sightings in 1953 statewide and 15 yrs. ago, 30. Now, he wrote, 30 per winter in King Co is not unusual, and they are often seen at feeders.  So, yes, they are increasing.  Has anyone else had one maintain such a long stretch as a yard bird?  If it's here tomorrow, it'll have been seen in 5 consecutive months, almost daily!Penny Koyama, Bothell_______________________________________________
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