FOX SPARROW BY VINCENT O'BRIEN
The Fox Sparrow is one of my favorite wintering birds of Texas. With a large sturdy frame draped in beautiful rufous and gray patchwork, triangular rusty splotches on white below, yellow-gray bill and dark eyes, this bird summons the mystique of its far northern breeding grounds of mountain scrub and forest of Canada and Alaska. Like a spirit animal vexed from a Farley Mowat novel, this sparrow species can be elusive as it excavates the substrate of fallen leaves for food. I slowly paced down the river trail at Commons Ford Park, pausing to look and listen. SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCRATCH. I could hear leaf litter being kicked up nearby, like a small broom sweeping a porch. There it is, I can see leaves flying up from the ground under the tangled vines. But where is the digger? I could only see leaves tossed about-the bird was invisible. Fox Sparrow photo by Vincent O'Brien I hurled my binoculars up to my face, and there, a glorious Fox Spa...
