[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – The wind and cool weather kept the birds quiet at the riparian area on the west side of Jacumba late this afternoon. So I explored a bit downstream from the hot water seeps, getting out of the wind, and found some nice stands of bulrush backed by willows. I made a few pishing sounds and immediately heard a phoebe like call coming from low down in the vegetation. A couple seconds later and up popped just what I was searching for – this richly colored Swamp Sparrow Melospiza georgiana.

The clean gray nape and supercilium and well marked rufous in the crown indicates this is an adult Swamp Sparrow. The small finer looking bill, pale brown upper back color, and brightly colored flanks, point to this being the expected form “Northern” or “Western” Swamp Sparrow to be found wintering in California M.g. ericrypta.

This would seem to be a banner year for this delightful sparrow in San Diego County. The first record of the fall came back on 31 Oct 2012 when one was found by Paul Lehman at Famosa Slough. By coincidence, another individual was also found by Jay Keller today, 17 Nov 2012, at the Bird and Butterfly Garden in the Tijuana River Valley. This brings the Fall 2012 total to three records so far in the county. Perhaps there are more Swamp Sparrows out there to be found!

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – I am reckoning at least two, and possibly three, White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis have arrived at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. The first one I encountered on Saturday, a nice “tan-striped” color morph with streaked flanks, shown below entering through the fence, was traveling with a band of Dark-eyed Junco. On Sunday I saw at least one brighter “white-striped” color morph individual that alighted in a small pine at dawn. Later on a very brightly plumaged bird came out on the grass in front of me. Here are three photographs from different times over the past few days and different locations at the cemetery.

A “warm biscuit” colored Catharus thrush hiding behind the south fence on the east side got my pulse going. Repeatedly scared off by a Hermit Thrush, it eventually plucked up courage to reveal itself – a getting late Swainson’s Thrush Catharus ustulatus. This bird only shows a weak buff eye ring and supraloral. Although a nice warm overall color on the upper parts, and with a buffy bib across the upper chest (not visible in this photograph), the clearly buff flank color points to Swainson’s Thrush and not a much rarer Veery.

This shaggy maned Western Scrub-Jay Aphelocoma californica shows off the dark purplish blue of the local obscura race found here on the southwest California coast. Freshly molted, I think the local jays look spectacular at the moment. I only noticed later that this individual is sporting “jewelry” on its left leg!

I only detected the first Fox Sparrow Passerella iliaca yesterday behind the southeast section south fence. It was joined today by a second identically warm brown colored individual. Both birds had a slight reddish hue to the warm brown upper part color, evidently part of the “Coastal Northwest Sooty” unalaschcensis group of Fox Sparrows. Difficult to approach they remained so well hidden that I only managed this wary photograph through the fence.

The diversity of types of Dark-eyed Junco is climbing steadily at the cemetery. Over the weekend this nice “Pink-sided” Junco Junco hyemalis mearnsi appeared among the more numerous “Oregon” type. Without even looking through your binoculars this type of junco stands out by its size, it is quite a bit larger than the “Oregon” type.

This Pink-sided Junco may be a hatch year (HY) male – it appears to have completed first prebasic molt but retained what looks like a couple of juvenile tertial feathers on each wing (brown edged and tattered looking when magnified). The new molted smallest tertial (s9) matches the color of the other freshly molted greater secondary coverts (pale grey new feathers).

I sat down next to this puddle in the early morning and waited as Yellow-rumped Warblers came to drink. I caught this one alighting at the puddle edge. You can see many plumage details in the reflection as clearly as the actual bird image! In fact if you look closely parts of the reflection show feathers not visible on the bird itself, for example the underside of the tail!

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – In the early morning of 05 Oct 2012 I was looking over “The Wall”, along the east side of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, when a very large sparrow hopped up in among dead twigs below me. It had me puzzled from the back view for a moment but soon shuffled around on a branch revealing itself. I popped the telephoto lens over the wall and got a few nice shots of my first Golden-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia atricapilla of Fall 2012.

The San Diego Bird Atlas indicates this species arrives here in the county in the first week of October, so this rather exhausted looking individual was right on time. Squinting its eyes at me in the bright morning sunshine, it really looked as if it had been on the wing all night and had barely a chance to rest before I found it. The streaked underparts indicate this is a juvenile Golden-crowned Sparrow. It had found its way almost to the southern limit of the wintering range of this species which regularly extends only a few hundred more miles down Baja California Norte, Mexico.

This species completes part of its first prebasic molt on the breeding grounds and this individual does look as if it has a mixture of newer richly colored feathers and some very worn tattered feathers too. The fluffy feathered head has some nice looking new black feathers coming in on the crown stripes above the lores (this individual is at the darkest end of the range for a hatch year bird). The tail by contrast is a real worn out tattered mess already with nothing but spiky ends to some of the rectrices.

There is a single field character of this species which easily separates it from all White-crowned Sparrow plumages – the absence of a median crown stripe on the head. Often loose sparrow flocks seem to always be looking at you from their sides, yes birds have eyes on the sides of their heads! But get a look at them from head on and the Golden-crowned Sparrow is virtually unmistakeable with its golden peppered crown bordered only on the sides by darker stripes. In addition it is very large, when found alone that is not so useful, but in a mixed flock with White-crowned if there is one “big” sparrow then it could well be a Golden-crowned.

I usually see small numbers of Golden-crowned Sparrow around Point Loma but they appear in a wave and then peter out to being quite scarce there later in the winter. Some nice looking black and gold crown striped alternate plumaged individuals, breeding finery, can also be found here in the early spring time – those are always a nice find.

I knew something was up this morning here in San Diego when I found a migrant Common Yellowthroat in my backyard in Pacific Beach. Now that is unusual and probably a sign to look further afield! So off I went for a quick tour of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. I was following a small flock of mixed birds in the northwest section, darting up and down from pines to the ground, when an enormous grosbeak like bicolored bird jumped up on a grave marker! Not a grosbeak though, showing off its big white shoulder epaulets this was a much rarer Lark Bunting Calamospiza melanocorys. I followed it around for just a few minutes obtaining some photographs before it hopped the north fence line and was gone!

The enormous size of this “sparrow-like” bird can be appreciated when seen perched next to a diminutive Chipping Sparrow! Standing together on top of the grave marker, the Lark Bunting looks as if it could almost tuck the smaller sparrow under its wing!

Lark Bunting is a rare visitor to San Diego County and I had encountered another individual here almost one year ago on 18 Oct 2011. Last year seems to have been a bumper crop with another individual found by Paul Lehman on 6 Nov 2011 further east in the county in the agricultural field edges at Jacumba. In recent years large flocks of this species have been observed in Arizona, sometimes numbering in the multiple hundreds of individuals per flock. Perhaps a wintering range expansion or increase in numbers could be driving the increasing frequency this species is encountered here on the California coast.

Luckily the Lark Bunting reappeared later in the day and many other people observed it at the cemetery.

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – This delightful looking Grasshopper Sparrow Ammodramus savannarum was out on the open short turf at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery and allowed some detailed photography of its amazing plumage coloration. This is the western perpallidus form of Grasshopper Sparrow, first described by army surgeon and field ornithologist Elliot Coues from the western US in 1872. This form of Grasshopper Sparrow breeds from western Canada south to San Diego and across east to Texas. It has sometimes been called the “Western Grasshopper Sparrow” to separate it from other forms of this North American species. It has never been elevated to separate species level but always considered a form of the widespread Grasshopper Sparrow.

The richly colored dark buffy-orange supraloral spot, just ahead of the eye and above the pale straw colored loral region, is a distinctive character of this form of Grasshopper Sparrow. In addition the rich buff colored wide margin of the underparts, with blurred chestnut brown short streaks included (only found on this form of Grasshopper Sparrow), is another good field character when encountering this small Ammodramus. The pale buffy-white belly patch, surrounding the legs and on the fore-belly, is also distinctive, particularly when the bird stands up high on its legs looking straight at you or when seen taking a short flight.

Everywhere you look on this sparrow there are dark chestnut, gray, blackish, and buff colors changing abruptly across the feathers on the upperparts. The pale feather fringes add to the complexity of the overall pattern, almost too many details to absorb at first sight.

The underparts appear richly buff colored, almost glowing gold colored from a distance. It can be told from its congeners by the gray supercilium, or eyebrow, to the rear of the eye, the buffy auriculars and the complete and bold eye ring. Personally I think the head looks large and rounded with a large eye although it can flatten the crown feathers to appear flat headed as in the photograph below. I also think the spiky raised gray and chestnut peppered feathers of the crown are a neat field character, with the paler straw colored median crown stripe contrasting prominently.

The neatly colored tertials are pretty amazing on this sparrow – dark chestnut and black with a pale whitish margin to the complete feather. They form a unique looking twin set of ladder markings up the back of this colorful sparrow. One of my absolute favorites and always a pleasure to study up close!