An Oddball

Our feeders continue to be mobbed and the numbers of various sparrow species has swelled to somewhere around 60-70.  Most are white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos. our most common winter birds.  But this one...well, as soon as I spotted it, I knew there was something different about it.  And once I was able to get my lens pointed at it, I realized that it has some leucism around it's face.  To give you some contrast, I'll put a "normal" white-throated Sparrow in Extra.  You can see that this bird, instead of having the white eye line, has a patch of white.  Interesting.  Turning into quite a year for leucistic birds in my garden.

We've had some flurries today along with a bit of wind and chilly temps.  No place to put up my hide at the moment because the snow is just too deep, so I hunched down on the deck steps to get my shots today, all bundled up and looking arctic explorer.  I always like getting shots of single birds against a white background and the conditions right now are absolutely perfect, so I had some fun with that.

I've posted my two other favorite shots from today on Flickr starting HERE.  On any other day, one of these would have been my blip, but I couldn't pass up this oddball sparrow.

Ran a few errands today including a quick run to the local state park to see if the main road was cleared.  It is, so I'm meeting my birder friends there tomorrow for a hike.  It will be a balmy 38 F tomorrow.  Brrrr.  

Stay safe out there.  Be kind and eat chocolate (latest fave, dark with orange essence ...)

xo
Debbi