Finding a Northern Harrier in Clarke County’s last remaining fragments of farmland is always a thrill, but seeing a male, perched, at close range is a rare treat indeed.

Also present was a Black Vulture, seen here ready for launch.

I’ve been expecting this one for a while… today, a fine Horned Grebe became the 175th species for my local patch list. It showed very well close to the levee and just off of the beach.

Neil and I birded Canvey Island on an incoming tide at sunrise. We didn’t record any unexpected species (a lone Red-throated Diver among the Great Crested Grebes was the best), but were treated to thousands-strong wheeling flocks of shorebirds congregating at their high tide roost. I haven’t seen such large numbers of Knot in the Thames estuary since leaving Essex 15 years ago.

Dark-bellied Brent Geese

Curlew

Knots and Dunlin

I’m spending my Thanksgiving break with family in England, and today birding friend of 22 years Neil took me out to East Mersea to look for rare geese. In spite of having only my ancient, fairly useless scope and wobbly tripod rescued from my parents’ loft, and thick fog clearing to strongly backlit birds, we were able to pick out the stunning Red-breasted Goose from the Dark-bellied Brent Goose flock without too much trouble.

The flock also held a Tundra Bean Goose, and a Black Brant (looking much spiffier than its European counterparts).

To cap off an excellent hour of birding, we had two Lapland Buntings fly over calling.

While the main push of sparrow migration is seemingly over, individual White-Crowned and Vesper Sparrows have been seen over the last week.

Among the throng of Swamp Sparrows in the wet flush, I was pleased to see last year’s returning leucistic bird.

Surprisingly, today I ran into a second leucistic Swamp Sparrow that I hadn’t seen before. The bird has  washed-out, warm sandy tones all over.

From some angles, the bird looks ‘rare’ – what would you call this if it flushed in front of you?

A more regularly-patterned Swamp Sparrow.

I scratched my head over this one for a bit, but decided that it was a female Redhead – the first time I’ve seen this scarce passage migrant at this location.

A couple of stags have been out in the fields, including an impressive ten-pointer. Perhaps they know they can’t be hunted here!

American Pipits are now daily flyovers here. Dark-eyed Junco and Sharp-shinned Hawk are further harbingers of winter.

It’s been a case of out with the old, in with the new this week in my yard. At least one Tennessee Warbler persisted until Wednesday, but I haven’t seen them since.

More seasonal birdbath fare.

A much less welcome sight, but it was a good reminder to clean the bird feeders.

This Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has been drilling my front yard red maple, and Myrtle Warblers have been quick to enjoy the free maple syrup.

A rainstorm early in the week brought a small wave of migrant waterfowl to Lake Herrick. I missed most of them, but did catch this large raft of Coot. I wasn’t the only one whose attention they caught…

My most fun non-birding sighting of the week was a party of four river otters enjoying the fish buffet at the oxbow lake.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I ran into a Nelson’s Sparrow in downtown Charleston last weekend, and last Friday the Ammodramus gods smiled on me again when I turned up a Le Conte’s Sparrow south of Athens, only the second county record since the first documented sighting in 1937! Unlike my frustrating experience with my lifer Le Conte’s at Eufaula NWR earlier in the year, this bird posed (relatively speaking) out in the open giving me good views for about a minute before it vanished. Since the area the bird frequented was on UGA-owned land not accessible by a public road, and more importantly, the area of suitable habitat was small, prone to trampling, and home to several wintering Swamp Sparrows, I decided not to post to the state listserv and instead called a few local birders for a group vigil. Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) the bird was never seen again. While the experience would have been sweeter if others had re-found it, or the bird had been viewable from a public right of way, I’m thrilled to have finally got a decent look at this beautiful, but fiendishly difficult-to-see, gem of a sparrow.

Late October and early November again proved an excellent time for numbers and diversity of sparrows (up to nine species per day) at the South Milledge fields. Some mornings it’s a pleasure to be out enjoying the crisp fall sunshine…

… and other mornings I wish I was still bundled up in bed!

Three Lincoln’s Sparrows, probably all different birds, have shown up this fall.

While juvenile White-crowned Sparrows are almost a daily occurrence here, seeing an adult is a rare treat.

A ‘flock’ of three Vesper Sparrows appeared at the beginning of the week.

Savannah, Field and Swamp Sparrows are now back in good numbers.

Both flavours of Palm Warbler and this Orange-crowned Warbler have been seen here over the last week.

Early November has seen several straggling migrants around my yard, yielding some new late dates for Clarke County. Most surprising to me was my first yard record of Philadelphia Vireo.

Four Tennessee Warblers continue to visit my birdbath.

When I photographed this thrush, I assumed it was last week’s Hermit Thrush, but the ‘spectacles’ and lack of rufous in the tail in fact confirm its identity as a late Swainson’s Thrush.

More seasonal sightings include multiple Myrtle Warblers and a Blue-headed Vireo.