Even the best laid plans sometimes go awry… Friday evening, just as I was about to send out a message to those joining me at Lowville Saturday morning, I took a misstep and went over on my ankle.  Long story short, it’s not broken but it is badly sprained.  There was no way I was going to be able to do the walk into the site at Lowville.  Thankfully Ashleigh was free this morning and was able to head over to set up with the youth so they could get in their banding fix for the weekend.  Well, 5 am came and I could hear the birds singing outside and since I wasn’t falling back asleep, I thought I would try hobbling out to my backyard to open the one net that is just steps outside my backdoor.  It was a pretty slow morning, but nice to sit on my couch with my foot up, watching for birds to go in the net before I went out to extract them.

I had a couple interesting birds.  One of them a very odd looking Chipping Sparrow. There was no rusty cap and the black eye line was very faint.  Again I was able to send photos out to a few people to get their thoughts and everyone agreed it was indeed a Chipping Sparrow, which is too bad because I was hoping for some rare bird!  I have attached the photos below.  I also had a female Red-breasted Nuthatch with a brood patch.  This is great for the breeding atlas.  There’s only been 1 summer since we moved here in 2018 that we haven’t had them around.  I’ve been certain they are nesting, but had not been able to get any evidence of any before today.

Banded:

1 – AMGO
4 – CHSP
1 – White-throated Sparrow
1 – Song Sparrow
1 – Downy Woodpecker

Recaps:

1 – Song Sparrow
2 – Red-breasted Nuthatches

Total: 11 (8 Banded, 3 Recaps)

Chipping Sparrow: Note the lack of rusty cap.

Note faint, black eye line. Overall a very strange looking Chipping Sparrow!