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Re: The Humbling Sparrow/Franklin's Gull



Shantanu's description of the sparrow sounds to me like an Ipswich Sparrow 
(Passerculus sandwichesis princeps) -- the race of Savannah Sparrow that 
breeds on Sable Island, Nova Scotia.

I saw my first Franklin's Gulls this spring in Texas.  One thing that struck 
me is that they didn't seem at all similar to Laughing Gulls, even though the 
two appear nearly identical in field guides.  They reminded me more of 
Bonaparte's than Laughing.  So if a gull doesn't immediately strike you as 
being something different from a Laughing, chances are it was just that, not 
a Franklin's.

> This trip to Fort Fisher seems to have been an exercise in grasping subtle
> differences. The other bird which humbled me was a humble sparrow. So,
> here goes:
> 	It was a very finely streaked, sandy colored sparrow with the
> streaks on the breast coming together in a very subtle central spot. It
> had a white eye-line and median stripe, and a moustache of sorts. the chin
> was definitely a pure, unstreaked white. The legs and lower mandible
> looked bright yellow to me; but when I look in the field guide (Nat. Geog)
> there is no sparrow with yellow legs--they all have flesh-colored legs. It
> was hopping about on the sand in the dunes and eating seeds, at one point
> it hopped down to the edge of a tidal channel and acted like a swamp
> sparrow (but it was not a swampie). The amazing thing about it was the
> fineness of the streaking both on its chest and its sides, and its sandy,
> almost pearly, color. I wish I had seen it fly and I looked very hard for
> white outer tail feathers but saw none. It looks the closest to either a
> Vesper sparrow (but as i said I saw no white outer tail feathers)or an
> Ipswich sparrow. I wish I had the presence of mind to look for an
> eye-ring; I did not and none jumped out at me. 
> 	Can anyone shed any light on any of this. And also, is the Ipswich
> a sub-species of the Savannah. How common are both on the dunes at Fort
> Fisher?
> 	I am trying so-o-o hard to make the 400th bird on my N American
> life-list and now it is down to the wire (I have 5 more to go) before the
> millenium is over.
> 
> A Humbled Birder in search of answers
> 
> *****************************************************
> SHANTANU PHUKAN
> Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
> University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
> Curriculum in Asian Studies
> Alumni Hall 413C
> Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599
> 
> phukan@email.unc.edu
> 919-962-6825
> *****************************************************
> 


-- 
Charles W. "Will" Cook                w 919-660-7423
cwcook@duke.edu                 h 919-967-5446
Duke University Botany Dept., Durham, North Carolina
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook