Double Trouble SP 11/6--Vesper Sparrow

The sandy trails around the back bogs at Double Trouble are often a good place for sparrows in the fall--they pick at the seeds that fall from the overhanging vegetation. Today though, it was pretty quiet there, as were the reservoir and the two now overgrown bogs. It wasn't until I was halfway down the middle path that I saw a couple of sparrows ahead. The glare was intense, so I was at a disadvantage, but with my bins I could tell that one was another Song Sparrow, but the other was "interesting." You can almost never get very close to feeding sparrows, so I crept up a few steps and took a few pictures of the duo for comparison later, and then a few pictures of the interesting sparrow solo. I could tell that it had a big eye ring--like a whitewall tire, and when eventually it flew into the bog, I saw a flash of white outer tail feathers. I had a feeling that it was a Vesper Sparrow, (eye ring, white outer tail feathers) but not having seen one in a couple of years, I waited until I got home and could blow up my photos on the computer. And yes: Year Bird, Patch Bird.  

With Song Sparrow

Having fulfilled the "one cool bird a day" requirement, I didn't mind that the rest of the list was pretty pedestrian--after all, I was walking. 

The sparse list:

21 species
Canada Goose  15
American Black Duck  2
Bald Eagle  2     Immatures on power line towers seen from Mill Pond
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  2
Fish Crow  26     Flyover Sweetwater Bogs
Common Raven  1     Croaking flyover
Carolina Chickadee  3
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
Winter Wren  1
Eastern Bluebird  2
American Robin  2
House Finch  2
American Goldfinch  3
White-throated Sparrow  6
Vesper Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  5
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1