November 11, 2004 [LINK]

Even more winter birds

On a walk down the trail behind the Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad this morning, I saw the first Hermit thrush of the season, as well as a Yellow-rumped warbler, a Towhee, a Red-bellied woodpecker, a Downy woodpecker, a Yellow-bellied sapsucker, some Golden-crowned kinglets only a few feet away (Arghhh -- no camera!!), a Chipping sparrow, and two Sharp-shinned hawks within 100 feet or so. One of them was probably the same hawk that killed a small bird in our back yard on Tuesday. Pine siskins reappeared in our back yard again several times today.

As part of the ongoing, long-overdue reorganization of this Web site, the Wild Birds pages have been modified heavily, with a more consistent format in the archives. While updating some of my records, I came across an interesting pattern: I saw the first White-crowned sparrow of the year on October 25 in 2002, 2003, AND 2004. Amazingly consistent!