With most of the shore bird migration behind us now, it is time to change gears. This started with the last post focusing mostly on water birds. Despite the grey and drizzly weather the last few days I have managed a few walks. They have been to Reifel where there have been some interesting song birds worth giving a try. One bird that has been seen off and on for a few weeks now is a White-throated Sparrow. Unfortunately I have yet to locate it, so I turned my attention to some of the regulars.
Lots of White-crowned Sparrows around,
… including immature birds. One change of pace,
… was this Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco. In this part of British Columbia we are most likely to see them at this time of year.
The Oregon Dark-eyed Junco is what we are used to seeing here most of the time. The other bird I was hoping to see was the Evening Grosbeak that had been sighted.
While I did manage to locate and photograph it, the location and lighting were not the best. The bird itself was looking a little bedraggled as well.
Of course there is never any shortage of House Sparrows. This species was introduced to North America from Europe and are referred to as Old World Sparrows.
While similar in appearance and behavior, they are a different family from the other New World Sparrows. Another change of pace while watching sparrows,
… was a couple of Hermit Thrush mixed in with them foraging on the ground. Continuing to scour the mixed groups for the White-throated, something else caught my eye.
This odd colored Fox Sparrow, perhaps partially leucistic.
This is how I would normally expect them to look. So while nothing too much out of the ordinary, a couple of interesting finds.