“People often ask me how it is that I seem to be so much at peace. There is a primary reason — and it is available to all who wish to have it. Here’s a simple prerequisite to attaining peace at that level. I invite you to observe the beasts, birds and fish and let them teach you. Let this be a daily routine and life, as you know it, will never be the same.”
– Eddie Bo

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Day 279 - Elings Park

Today I had a brief window to look for birds so I headed to Elings Park which is close to home.  There have been some good bird sightings here over time, and migration is still happening so it is possible that something unusual might be hanging around.

I strolled around the top of the park for about 45 minutes without seeing anything out of the ordinary.  There were basically no warblers around anywhere.  I started looking at a sparrow working through the fennel and I could immediately see it was not the usual resident sparrow (White-crowned or Savannah).  

I followed the sparrow around and also got some photos.  I was pretty convinced it was a juvenile Chipping Sparrow but not 100% certain.  You may recall I found a juvenile Chipping Sparrow about 3 weeks ago at La Mesa Park.  This one shared the basic ID features but did have a bit of a different look to it, so I sent photos to Mark Holmgren who kindly confirmed my suspicions.  I hoped that I was wrong and it was actually a Brewer's Sparrow (which I have yet to see this year) but it was not to be.  Those young sparrows can be challenging!

Some photos from this morning:

Chipping Sparrow - Juvenile

Chipping Sparrow - Juvenile

Chipping Sparrow - Juvenile.  And a snail!

After today the year's total still stands at 256. 

Today I rode a total of 2.6 miles

More later,
Glenn

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