[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2013] – It is almost mysterious the absence of birds around Point Loma. Even compared to a few days ago, it just emptied of birds. I was about to leave Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on 30 Oct 2013, as it was getting towards dusk, when a familiar sparrow “seep” call caught my attention. Sure enough I had flushed a White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis out of the Pride of Madeira plants and it teed up perfectly on the wall in front of me! After posing for a few photographs it took off with a band of Dark-eyed Junco picking over the roadside debris. This appears to be a first-winter individual still retaining considerable juvenile streaked feathers on the underparts. I think by this date last year I had found half a dozen White-throated Sparrows around Point Loma, so 2013 has been really thin pickings for even the more commonly expected eastern birds.
White-throated Sparrow – Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, San Diego, California 30 Oct 2013
White-throated Sparrow – Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, San Diego, California 30 Oct 2013
White-throated Sparrow – Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, San Diego, California 30 Oct 2013
White-throated Sparrow – Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, San Diego, California 30 Oct 2013