[EBB Sightings] White-crowned Sparrow

> Subject: Re: [EBB Sightings] White-crowned Sparrow
> 
> How about their accents? :-) Perhaps only the late Dr. Luis Baptista
> could distinguish these two by vocalizations.

Perhaps pugetensis behave the same on their nesting grounds, but the local birds seem very terrestrial to me; Almost mouse-like sometimes in their running about under bushes. But that's hardly a vieable identifier!

What impresses me (and perplexes me) about East Bay nuttali is their choice in digs. I see them in the most God forsaken, House Sparrow rejected of habitats. Like the public market shopping area in Emeryville; Asphalt, concrete, buildings and some manicured landscaping; But there they are, feeding young in the spring.  Under the cloverleaf of the 580/80/880 maze (which seems to get hit with roundup every year). The Emeryville Amtrak Station seems less bleak, and at least acceptable to House Sparrows. Nuttali are there reliably. Yet go a little north to Aquatic Park, and zip.  I have never seen or heard one there.  On the Alameda County BBA, Leora Feeney found them feeding young in a truly desolate location at the old Oakland Army Base; Parking lots, warehouses and some minimal (government regulation) landscaping.

Twice now I have had singing males in the residential area just NE of Ashby and San Pablo. But near as I can tell, they remained bachelors all season.

They used to nest at the Magic Garden Nursery on Heinz, just off San Pablo (first block north) on asphalt, with thousands of potted plants on wooden shelves.  A worker there once told me of a nest in a potted plant, which was left alone till the young fledged.

Still amazes me.

     Rusty Scalf