Early Bird Catches The Worm

Well they say that the early bird catches the worm and on Sunday, May 22 it proved to be correct. Despite coming down with a cold, I met my friend Paul at 7 AM on Gooseberry neck, Westport Massachusetts to see what the weather brought in in the way of migrants. The day was dark and dreary, yesterday I had birded the area around the parking lot just prior to going over for the main birding at Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary and found a orchard oriole and a yellowthroat warbler passing through.

Today, the birding activity was extremely slow, however, in the parking lot there was a sparrow. The usual suspects would be a song sparrow or a savannah sparrow, but with a close look at the sparrow, we determined that it was a Clay-colored Sparrow. Here is a picture of the sparrow.



Clay-colored Sparrow

What makes this very interesting is that I made a search on eBird for the reported sightings of a Clay-colored sparrow in Bristol County Massachusetts and found that there have been only a total of three sightings reported, two sightings in 2010 and this sighting this year.



We found an Eastern Towhee who song sounded when it started like a common yellow throat song. I did capture a video of it singing and you can hear the song even with all the wind that was blowing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photobee1/5756141236/in/photostream

Some other bird seen:

Common Grackle

Osprey

After Gooseberry we checked out a conservation area are in Westport where the major findings were a Veery and a yellow warbler's nest.

Yellow Warbler's Nest

Veery

We then traveled down to Weetamoe Woods in Tiverton Rhode Island and took a brief walk. We did hear a Arcadian flycatcher and the possibility of a Kentucky warbler.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Wild Geranium

Old Bus in Field with Flowers

At this point my cold was was getting worse, so I quit and went home to bed. But, the sighting of the Clay-colored sparrow was worth the trip even though I was not in the best of health.