Thursday Morning Walk - Koinonia

During the birding retreat a week or so ago we had gone in search of the Clay colored sparrow without much success. Today I found her. Not immediately of course. I had to do a little looking. First I went through the meadow where the swallows live.





They are accompanied by chipping sparrows...



...and even a few bluebirds



There were some new warblers to be seen:

A myrtle warbler for example



I saw a magnolia warbler too and a redstart, but wasn't fast enough to catch them on flash. The clay colored Sparrow looked a little dowdy after all those other birds, but it was what I had come to see, so was happy to hear its raspy voice and see it flitting around wildly.



I saw this goldfinch....



and also managed to get this blurry image of a golden crowned kinglet.



I had also seen wood ducks a red shouldered hawk and some dusky white eye-ringed bush bird. Of course this isn't a bird at all, but if you look carefully you can see one of those pretty striped garter snakes.



This is a white throated sparrow.



And here is one more view where you can see the stripes on the head.



It was a morning well-spent - now it is time to get to work writing!