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Grasshopper sparrow @ Rich Mt. Gap



So much for perfect timing!  My evening grosbeaks held on till one day before the CBC meeting, then departed to disappoint us; and yesterday I discovered that my grasshopper sparrow had returned to his familiar spot at Rich Mtn. Gap--a couple days after the CBC meeting!  Shucks.
 
While grasshopper sparrows may be more common in your vacinity, this little fellow who spent the entire summer at the gap last year was only the 3rd such sparrow to be seen in Watauga Cnty, where there is no recorded nesting of that species.  Now, exactly a year to the week, another grasshopper sparrow is claiming the very same territory (I presume it to be the same sparrow).  Last summer the mate was never discovered.
 
What does this little fellow think he's doing at the gap all alone? 
 
Well, all alone in terms of his own species.  Vesper, field, & song sparrows are abundant at the gap--all singing heartily in the warm early evening yesterday.
 
Walton Conway
Boone, NC
goldencc@boone.net
 
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