Want to learn sparrows? Get to your local community gardens

At least I think it's one of the best places to find fall sparrows.

Due to some unfortunate health circumstances, I've not had much opportunity to get out in the last week or so. But today, I was feeling ok and a little more than optimistic that I could hold out for a few hours, so I decided to head out for some fresh air and hopefully a few birds. Staying local (in case I was overly optimistic), I went over to Horn Pond in Woburn, just a few block from where we live. The local Wood Ducks were about and the young males are just starting to get some of their gaudy color...
That red eye looks almost evil to me without the rest of their!

And the local Kingfishers were still about. I've been trying for a while now to get a good picture of one of these birds, but no matter how much I practice my ninja-birder stealth, barely making a sound, rarely even moving a twig - they still go rattlin' off to the other side of the pond when I try to snap the shutter...


But the highlight of the day were the sparrows. As I started to say above, I've always found our local community gardens a great place to look for sparrows in the fall. We are getting to the point where a lot of the plants are going to seed -a feast for the sparrows, and a good number of other birds too. Today while visiting, I saw the expected Song, Savannah, Chipping and Swamp Sparrows that you can usually rely on throughout the summer. The White-throated Sparrows that will be with us through the winter have also arrived. But this is also a good time of the year to catch a few less common ones as well.

Song Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow isn't that rare around here, but they are always nice to see...

But the highlight sparrow of the afternoon had to be the Clay-colored. Not common around here, but certainly found in migration...
I know, I know - I'm not flexing any photographic muscle on these shots, but I think they are good enough for the ID. And you think those are bad, that's nothing compared to this...

This was another less common sparrow that I saw and couldn't get the camera to focus on before it flew.
Any guesses? Any? Come on, give it a shot. I already told you it wasn't common here in New England, but we do get them. Not that it helps, but this is an immature bird, and it's pretty good size. I'll put the answer in the comments section in a few days if you want to hazard a guess.

Other birds that I saw today on my walk included a few Ring-necked Ducks, an American Coot, still a few Eastern Phoebes around, as well as a few Red-bellied Woodpeckers.

A personal highlight was getting a Eastern Screech Owl to respond to my tremolo, so I must finally be getting a little better at it. (We heard one a few weeks back in the same location when my buddy Paul did his Screech Owl imitation, which is about the best I've ever heard. If I can ever do it half a well as he can, I'll be thrilled)


Oh, and I have to admit, I often forget to try to photograph the really common birds - but every now and again, I'll remember and get something that I really like - like this photo I got of a Black-capped Chickadee.
I think that's a good point to wrap it up... Cheers!