If interested, don’t have to wake up in early AM hrs to see Comet Neowise now. It’s visible best after 10:30 PM, about 2 fists above the horizon, below the Big Dipper in the NW sky. The comet will rise a bit closer to the Dipper each night between now & 7/23. Visible with naked eye but looks really good though binoculars &, I’m sure, best with a telescope.
I’m encouraged, Bill and Larry. As one just starting out in birding by way of recording birdsong soundscapes I’m impressed with the seemingly vast number of feathered friends one might become acquainted with. I’ve had the delight of meeting several in the group that appear to me to be unconscious competents at recognizing birds. It’s second nature to them. It’s reflexive. They still seem to love it, too. I’m open to being convinced, but I’m not convinced yet that I want to devote the endless effort required to becoming able to identify every last bird that crosses my path. I resonate to the proposition that there is joy in it at every level.
I’ve been birding and listing for about 50 years, both back east and out west for the last 35 years and was sent all over the country for work. I decided years ago that several types of birds should just be lumped, which spares me the effort to find difficult (at times esoteric) field marks to get a specific ID.
I now call all small streaky brown birds – “sparrows” all empids – flycatchers and especially all small shorebirds – shorebirds. All of them are on my life lists anyway and now I just enjoy watching them and leave the bird book on the windowsill or in my pocket when these pesky highly lumpable fellows get near me.
Thanks. Never ocurred to me but I did note the white tail feathers in the photo. I saw an immature Junco at the house the other day. Did not put the bird at the house and the one up on the moutain together. The one at the house was darker brown on the chest but an adult Junco was feeding it so I assumed it was an immature which I had never seen before.
My vote is “neither” 😁. An immature that looks superficially unlike its parents but the pinkish bill helps (& the white outer tail feather seen from beneath) … a Dark-eyed Junco.
