[Birdnet] Possible Ammodramus Type/Baird's Sparrow at Garr Ranch

[Tim Avery]

This morning (05/04) Jeff Bilsky, Sam and I went out to the causeway to scour through the shorebirds, but too also see what migrants were coming through at Garr Ranch.  I will get to the trip report later on birdtalk.  The most intersting sighting was a bird that caught my attention as it jumped through the grass and ran until jumping and flying into another patch of grass.  I immediately thouhht of a Baird's Sparrow and told Bilsky where to be looking.  The bird was in the field just south of the large patch of trees at the ranch, near the brush pile.  I walked to where the bird had flew and as I got within 5 or 6 feet, it shot up out of the grass onto a branch, revealing an olive-brown color and dark and white streaked back.  Before I could get my binoculars on it, it jumped into the grass running under a Russian Olive to the other side.  It was a tiny sparrow and appeared to have some streaking on the side and neck.  We walked around the bush, only to have the bird jump into the tree and fly low to the gorund into the large trash/brush pile disappearing into the mess.  Jeff got worse looks than I did.  I think he only saw it up on teh branch for a second, and then flying once.  We went  to the pile and wlaked around a coupel times.  A single White-crowned Sparrow flushed form the brush and flew out after a while, but we never did see the sparrow again :(

All I kept thikning about was how it was runnign through the grass when I was right next to it.  It reminded me of Larry Tripp's sighting at Lytle a couple years ago.  The only other thing that I felt it could have been was the darker sub-species of Savannah Sparrow.  But the way the bird was acting seemed very strange for a Savannah Sparrow, a species which is normally quite accomodating to watch.

Good Birding

Tim
Salt Lake City, Utah
tanager at timaverybirding.com
http://www.timaverybirding.com
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