Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Sparrows and Such

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Kentucky watching Game 1 of the World Series thinking that I should probably post some photos that didn't make the last few blog posts. Sparrows are another lot of birds that I usually don't pay too much attention to except for this stupid contest.  This year has made me realize how any sparrows there are and how some of them are difficult to see.  The problem is that they only show up in our area for a short period of time so you have to see them or else you won't have them for the stupid contest.

The difficult sparrows are Lark, Clay-colored, Vesper and Lincoln's.  They aren't really difficult.  They are just required for the stupid contest.  Good news. I have all of them.  The last one that I needed was Vesper. I was getting worried but we saw 2 of them this weekend.  It has become apparent that they are difficult to photograph.  I do not have a photo to share with you.  I do have photos of some of the other sparrows.

WARNING - they all look alike. Don't be shocked when you can't tell the difference between any of these.

Lincoln's Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow
We also had a fun Hummingbird visitor in Cape May this weekend.  My friend Harvey has a beautiful garden that has many flowers planted to attract hummingbirds. He also has about 5 sugar water feeders.  The garden hosts many Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during the summer but this week a new hummer showed up. Rufous Humminbirds are western birds. They occasionally show up here in fall as this bird did. Notice the gold/beige on the breast.  It is a female. Harvey was thrilled to have her in the garden for a few days but also happy to see her go. Nobody wants one of these gems to hang around the shore for the winter since chances are that the bird will not survive. 

Rufous Hummingbird

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't remember signing a permission slip for you to be out of town. Did you forge my signature? There will be consequences! HH

Linda said...

I have to go out of town to keep Tim employed sometimes.

Diane Widdop said...

Just when you think you're learning the differences among the sparrows, they leave the area, then you have to start the learning process all over next year. Great looks at that hummer - she was a beauty. Hope she makes it home safely.