Neighborhood Surprise
I am a creature of habit. I’ll often return to the same, familiar spot repeatedly. In my new neighborhood, that means circling a little park on a near-daily basis. So far, this tiny area has yielded 53 birds since June. That’s a lot more than I would have expected for a manicured lawn with very few trees.
I left for my walk around the park to satisfy my habitual morning routine, yet this time, something was tugging at me to explore a bit more. Outside of the neighborhood is another housing development, but next to that is a marshy field encased in wire fencing. It’ll likely be slated for development at some point. But for now, something urged me to check it out.
I was first drawn in by the seets of sparrows, but they were difficult to locate. The grasses and weeds had grown long, offering cover for foraging sparrows. Once in a while, a sparrow would poke out just long enough for a brief look through the binoculars. White-crown Sparrows, a Song Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrows dominated, until we heard the buzzy seet of a Lincoln’s Sparrow – county lifer #99. Four Lincoln Sparrows eventually popped into view. I looked closely just to make sure there were no Vesper Sparrows sporting a white eye ring among them. I’m not sure if we get Vesper Sparrows here, but it’s good to look anyways!
This little marshy area also housed a couple of Marsh Wrens – a pleasant surprise given that the surrounding area is either housing development or endless fields of almond trees.
We accidentally startled a couple of birds that were rather shorebird-like. My first thought was that they were dowitchers, but this habitat didn’t match up. After searching a bit (and again accidentally flushing them due to their terrific camouflage), I was delighted to figure out that they were Wilson’s Snipes. Now that’s a treat! I hope we didn’t scare them too much and that they will stick around. I’ll have to be more careful when birding along the fence next time.