[Birdtalk] 24Oct07-Lakefront: SWAMP SPARROW, Sabine's Gull

[Tim Avery]

Today I headed out to the causeway and Garr Ranch.  The weather was quite
pleasant, warm enough for short sleeves, and the lake was placid.  Shorebird
numbers and species are still surprising for such a late date, and the large
flock of teal on the north side of the causeway remains from Sunday.

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/octo07/gwte_01.jpg

A juvenile SABINE'S GULL flew over the causeway headed northeast near MM3,
continuing the great fall for this species in Utah.  And the flock of birds
where the Beyer's    reported a Ruff a few nights back was in the same place,
with everything previously reported, minus the Ruff.  There was a single
Pectoral Sandpiper with them, as well as a Dunlin.

And at the first bridge (between MM4-5), on the north side of the causeway was a
flock of 95 plovers.  And surprisingly, there were 13 AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER
mixed in with the birds.  At one point I had 6 birds in one scope view.

At the ranch things were pretty calm.  because of the Bison roundup this week,
there were numerous horse trailers around the south edge of the ranch, and lots
of unwanted noise.  Birds were sparse.  As I walked on the north side of the
fence along the spring, I could hear several Golden-crowned Kinglets.  As I
followed one to the ground about 20 feet ahead I spotted a very rufous
melospiza sparrow, and getting my binocs on it was greeted with great looks at
a SWAMP SPARROW:

http://timaverybirding.com/photos/octo07/swsp_01.jpg
http://timaverybirding.com/photos/octo07/swsp_02.jpg

The bird was probably directly north of where Kris Purdy saw a sparrow last week
that struck her as "swampish", but she didn't get great looks at the bird. 
Below are the highlights from today:

Antelope Island  Causeway
Number of species:     26

 Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola     82
 AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER - Pluvialis dominica     13
 Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla     3
 Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri     10
 Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla     8
 Baird's Sandpiper - Calidris bairdii     5
 PECTORAL SANDPIPER - Calidris melanotos     1
 DUNLIN - Calidris alpina     1
 Long-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus scolopaceus     100
 SABINE'S GULL - Xema sabini     1

Antelope Island - Garr Ranch
Number of species:     15

 Northern Flicker - Colaptes auratus     7 (including 1 YELLOW-SHAFTED)
 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET - Regulus satrapa     4
  http://timaverybirding.com/photos/octo07/gcki_01.jpg
 Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Regulus calendula     5
 Hermit Thrush - Catharus guttatus     1
 SWAMP SPARROW - Melospiza georgiana     1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Cheers

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