Saturday, January 30, 2010

Lark Sparrow - No + King Eider - Yes

[A half hour poking around the junction of Shunpike and Route 9 yielded plenty of sparrows, including Field Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, whitethroats, songs, juncoes, Eastern Towhees and Savannahs like this one, but no Lark Sparrow, though it easily could still be there. Click to enlarge all photos.]

Though the Lark Sparrow previously reported was not evident during a short search this morning, the King Eider was at a frigid Poverty Beach. A female Common Goldeneye flew north along the shore, and Great Cormorants are starting to look really spiffy, with the adult birds developing flank patches and white on the cheeks.

[What an immature male King Eider looks like about a mile away, Poverty Beach. Remember, stay outside the Coast Guard property. Get the steeper forehead profile (kind of visible in the photo as the bird sleeps), plus yellow-orange on the bill (looks like it's over the bill), and entirely dark back - neither visible in this photo - to separate from Common and clinch the i.d. ]

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