[birding] E.E. Wilson sparrow search (early report, sort of a maybe)

[Joel Geier]

Hello folks,

A half-dozen birders converged on the north end of E.E. Wilson Wildlife
Area this morning, to search for the reported Henslow's Sparrow. I had
to get back home so this is the early report.

Between us we had five or six views of solitary, small, dark, furtive
sparrows that might have worked for Henslow's (possibly all the same
bird), though no views good enough to be anything close to confident.
Here is the play-by-play from my recollection (just to get it down, I
will try to sum up my impressions at the end with additional directions
to follow by a second posting):

On my way to the location that Doug Robinson flagged, around 7:45 AM,
our border collie/aussie shepherd mix Heidi and I came in from across
the field to the south, rather than from direction of the old shed. As
we approached a circular, ~30 ft diameter clump of reed canary-grass
(which turned out to be about 50 yards SW of Doug's flagging), a small,
dark-backed, short-tailed and proportionally rather broad-winged sparrow
flushed from a patch of weedy, lower grass about 10-15 ft ahead of us,
and made a low (1 or 2 ft off the ground), direct flight of about 20-25
ft into the edge of the reed-canary grass, disappearing as it landed
about a foot inside. It didn't vocalize during this flight. 

After waiting and trying some quiet pishing (little "tseeps" which tend
to work for bringing Savannah Sparrows and Lincoln's Sparrows into
view), without producing any vocalization from the bird, Heidi and I
worked clockwise around the edge of the canary-grass clump. We flushed
the bird once again, on the NW side of the clump, where it made a short
flight of maybe 10 ft, parallel to the edge of clump and dropping back
down inside it. So the bird must have moved ahead of us, staying on the
ground, probably a distance of 30 to 50 feet before it took flight (my
impression was that the bird was sticking to just inside the perimeter
of the clump).

After a bit more waiting, I saw two birders materialize out of the fog,
who turned out to be Jay Withgott and Hendrik Herlyn. After pacing
around the outside of the canary-grass clump a few times, we tried
searching the area around the clump for a distance of about 50-75 yards
in every direction, without flushing any sparrows (it was surprising how
few sparrows that area had this morning). Eventually as we were all
drifting back toward the clump, and I saw a dark, roundish sparrow very
similar to the first one flush and make a similarly low, direct flight
about 10-15 ft from a patch of weedy grass back into the NW corner of
the canary-grass clump. Again, the bird landed just inside the outermost
clump of canary-grass. 

Jay and Hendrik moved in from the NE side of the clump as I stayed put,
until Jay was standing practically on top of where I'd seen the bird
land. Then Jay moved through the clump while Hendrik and I followed on
the flanks, but we didn't see any sign of the bird. It was amazing how
it just disappeared.

At this point, Rich Armstrong, Paula Vanderheul and Marcia Cutler from
Corvallis showed up. We tried forming a broad skirmish line and walking
through a couple of swaths of the habitat, but didn't see any small
sparrows. 

After another period of milling about, Jay wandered over near Doug's
flagged location and spotted another (or the same?) small dark-backed,
low-flying sparrow. Well, I should let him describe it when he gets back
in. I think he said that it made a couple of right-angled bends in its
flight. 

After Jay informed us of this, we all converged on that place. I had one
more brief look at a small, dark-backed sparrow making a low flight into
and landing just inside the edge of patch of low, relatively open
blackberries (maybe woodland trailing blackberries?), just a few paces
east of Doug's flagging. This time I had an impression of a little more
"float" (bird tipping its tail up) as it landed, maybe a little longer
tail, and I thought I saw a bit of white under the tail. I was straight
behind the bird this time, rather than at a rake or broadside angle as
in previous views, so that might have made a difference in my
impressions of the tail.

Again, the bird seemed to completely disappear even with six of us all
around the small thicket. At this point I had to head home, but the rest
were going to keep searching the area until 11:30 or so.

To sum up my overall impressions:

1. The small sparrow(s) that we saw were solitary in a patch with very
few other sparrows. All sightings were within 50 yards or less of the
places that Doug described.

2. Nothing about the general look, coloration, proportions, and behavior
of the bird that I saw in the first three views would rule out Henslow's
Sparrow, to my knowledge (though I have never seen a Henslow's Sparrow
in my life, so I'm just going on book descriptions). The general shape
in flight was consistent with the Ammodramus sparrows that I have some
field experience with (Grasshopper and LeConte's). However:

3. I could not rule out a relatively dark, reddish Savannah Sparrow
based on the few views I had. I've had them fool me before. The bird
didn't look, fly or act like a Lincoln's Sparrow or Swamp Sparrow, which
are the only other small sparrows that I'd expect in that area (the
latter have a proportionally more long-tailed look, and normally I would
recognize either as "Lincoln's-type" in such views). 

4. If the bird was a dark/reddish Savannah Sparrow, it's surprising that
it hasn't hooked up with the flock of Savannah Sparrows which has been
around about 300 yards south of this location. Its behavior was in other
ways not what I'd expect for a Savannah Sparrow (more furtive, unwilling
to perch in response to light "tseeps," etc).

5. On the other hand, sometimes Savannah Sparrows don't act like
Savannah Sparrows.

So I'm not prepared to call the bird I saw anything more than a furtive
and rather suspicious Savannah Sparrow which just might be a Henslow's
Sparrow. Hopefully we'll hear more from the others after they return
from the field. I gave Jay my phone number so at this point, no news is
not good news.

Better directions to follow ....

Happy birding,
Joel

P.S. We didn't see any pheasants! I did find a fresh owl pellet which
looked like it was probably from a Short-eared Owl, so that might be
another bird to watch for out there. 

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis