[EBB Sightings] white-crowned sparrow fledlings

Dear Birders:

This morning at the Ashby Avenue OSH, my attention was drawn to a White-crowned Sparrow singing almost continuously from one of the tubbed trees on the parking lot near the stairs leading up to the store. Then I saw several birds hopping and fluttering around on the tarmac and realized they were fledgings -- handsome youngsters with a single white stripe down the middle of their heads.  With cars coming and going it wasn't a very safe place for these unseasoned newbys and I think the parent was trying to stay in touch with its song.

I have heard white-crowns in the vicinity of the Emeryville amtrak station and other places in downtown locations near the Bay.  One year, during a particularly cold and foggy summer, a pair nested up near Lawrence Hall of Science.

- Phila Rogers