White-throated Sparrow (and other spring migrant updates)

Another first for the season this weekend! We saw this little sparrow on Sunday, but only briefly. Unfortunately I only got the back of him in the pics, but we did get a good look and can confirm the sighting. Here's the ID overview from whatbird.com:

Medium-sized sparrow with rust-brown striped upperparts, conspicuous white throat, and plain gray underparts. Head has black-and-white striped crown and yellow spots between eyes and bill. Short flights, alternates rapid wing beats with wings pulled to sides.

and filed under "Interesting Facts":
* The White-throated Sparrow was first described in 1789 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin, a German naturalist, botanist and entomologist.
* It comes in two color forms: white-crowned and tan-crowned. The two color forms are determined by genetic differences, and are unique among birds.
* Individuals almost always mate with a bird of the opposite morph. Males of both color types prefer females with white stripes,and both kinds of females prefer tan-striped males.
* A group of sparrows has many collective nouns, including a "crew", "flutter", "meinie", "quarrel", and "ubiquity" of sparrows.


We went to visit my parents yesterday and we were delighted to see that a pair of Mallards are still hanging around. They were sunning themselves by the pool (the cover is still on, but there's enough water on top of it to provide them with an area to swim. They get Mallards stopping in almost every year. They hang out for a day or so and then continue on.



We also had up to 9 Chipping Sparrows hanging around now. The Tree Swallows are battling it out over access to a nesting box. I saw five of them this morning, all flying at each other and making quite a ruckus. When I checked later, there was one male guarding it and then bringing in nesting material (I think). I'm not even sure if we've seen a female yet.



No sign of the Bluebird this morning. I made him a special snack of peanut butter and raisins to entice him to stick around. We'll see what happens.