14 August, 2011, page is started.

Contents:  Mistaken Identity, Vermont Sparrow Key, Christmas Bird Count, Northfield West, 2011, Carl's North American life list north of Mexico (and additional locales)

Mistaken Identity

This is the first entry on this new page.

Here are pictures of a regular visitor for the past week (first seen on Aug 6th).  He seems to be taking up residence here.  As best as I can tell, he is a juvenile Oregon junco.  When he arrived, he was sickly looking, but a steady diet of mixed bird seed has brought him back to vigor.  Anyone who wants to see him, please come by 1404 Bailey Road, in Northfield. (See aerial photo below the bird pictures.) morning and late afternoon seem to be best.  Come up our driveway and peak around our side door deck.  You’ll see a clothes line with bird feeders on it.  Look on the ground beneath the bird feeders.  Be patient and stealthy, he is not on the ground feeding all the time, and he flushes at the first sign of danger.

Update-Turns out this is most likely a local juvenile, dark-eyed (slate-colored) junco.  I was gently corrected by a member of VTBIRD (VTBIRD@LIST.UVM.EDU). I had missed the comment in Sibley that all juvenile dark-eyed's look alike.  Robbins showed the juvenile under Oregon so I went with that.  Robins is my favorite birding book, even though it's older than many, because in 1971, when I was serving in the military, Chandler actually helped Scott Ward (my boss) and me with some bird recordings - over the phone, no less.  Not only did he ID the bird, but he correctly told us the cirumstances under which we recorded it.  So, lesson is: no one (especially me) is perfect.  Mistakes can be made even by those who have lots of experience (my North American - excluding Mexico - life list is at 417 species).

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