#443 Lark Sparrow at Irvine Regional Park
Tuesday Neil Gilbert posted about a Chestnut-sided Warbler on the Orange County Birds mailing list:
I got October off to a good start with a very nice hatch-year CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER at Irvine Regional Park in Orange. I saw it near the entrance to the park. It was hanging out with an enormous flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Western Bluebirds, House Finches, and Lark Sparrows.
Now Chestnut-sided Warblers are actually reasonably frequent in migration in New York City parks, so this wasn’t a target bird for me. However the Lark Sparrows he mentioned almost in passing are not a common East Coast bird, and I’d never seen one, so Wednesday afternoon after work I hopped in the Prius and headed up Jamboree to Irvine regional Park. I got there about 6:00 and found his flocks of robins, bluebirds, and warblers. There were also lots of House Finches. However I did not find either the Chestnut-sided Warbler or the Lark Sparrows. :-(
Sometimes you have to keep trying though, so the next morning I made a 15-mile detour on the way to work and stopped in the park around 9:00 A.M. This time the flocks of Robins and Bluebirds had vanished, though there were more than usual numbers of Anna’s Hummingbirds. I drove around Sycamore Hill and as I was coming back to the entrance I heard an unusual call I didn’t recognize so I parked and hopped out.
I never did figure out what the call was, but by the baseball backstop I found four Lark Sparrows:
As sparrows go, Lark Sparrows quite distinctive with bold facial patterns unlike any other North American bird, and an unstreaked breast with one central spot. They look a little like a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak in non-breeding plumage, but not really like any of the local birds so they’re really easy to ID once you find them.
I wandered around a bit, but I had to get to work so I didn’t spend long. Total species count was 11 in 20 minutes:
- Mourning Dove
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Acorn Woodpecker
- Black Phoebe
- Common Raven
- Western Bluebird
- European Starling
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Lark Sparrow
- House Finch
- Lesser Goldfinch
This weekend I should have a little more time to spend up in the hills, and see what else is coming through. I hear there’s a Bald Eagle hanging out at Peters Canyon, which would be a county bird for me. There are also three more sparrows I could get around here this year with some effort: Black-chinned, Black-throated, and Brewer’s.
