~ Outdoors TheReview Wednesday; August 5,1992 — A17 Black-throated sparrows are attractive and rare While the Peninsula boasts a number of sparrows, none could be more rare in our area than the black-throated sparrow, recorded a couple of weeks ago by Gerry Bicknell of Mills Road in North Saanich. The very handsome black-throat is featured in our photo today but I did not take the shot here. It was photographed well within its nor- mal range, in southem Arizona. The black throated sparrow is a particularly attractive species with its soft-brown back and crown, grey cheeks, dark areas at the base of the beak, throat and breast, and the immaculate underparts. The white eye-line above the eye and that below are good field marks. The rather conspicuous white lower eyelid always reminds me of MacGillivray’s warbler, perhaps because both species feature the black throat and upper breast as well. I suspect that most readers are acquainted with our small dark song sparrow which brightens our woodlands and brushy tangles with its delightful melodious song. Look for the streaked sides and central “stickpin” on the breast. If you are from the prairies or desert, you will recall that the form here is at least a couple of shades darker, in keeping with our heavier ‘It is a particularly attractive species with its soff-brown back and crown, grey cheeks, dark areas ai the base of the beak, throat and breast, and the immaculate underparts’ cover and deeper shadows. This is not an uncommon phenomenon on the West Coast. Our tusty-red fox sparrow is both larger and much more brightly colored. While it is both a 49 calls for ambulances Provincial ambulance crews from the Sidney office responded to 27 emergency calls and 22 non-emergency calls during the period from July 27 to B.C. Day holiday Monday, Sidney unit Chief Carson Hamber said. Included in the emergency. calls was the transport of three patients from a motor vehicle accident on Fifth Street, three cardiac arrest calls and several shortness of breath calls. Non-emergency calls included patient transfers from Saanich Peninsula Hospital to Victoria General, from the Gulf Islands to Saan Pen and from government air services air ambulance to Greater Victoria hospitals. In the previous one-week peri- od, July 20-26, ambulance crews responded to 24 emergency calls, including the transport of eight patients from three separate motor vehicle accidents. They also responded to 14 non- emergency calls, the majority from government air-services air ambul- ance at the Victoria Airport. Contrary to an earlier article about ambulance calls that appeared in the July 22 issue of The Review, the B.C. Ambulance Services’ budget is about $103 million, Hamber said: resident and migrant on the West Coast, we see it here as a a common migrant and winter visi- tor from September to May. The coloration of this handsome species assists in certain identifi- cation. The white-crowned spar- Tow is unmistakable with its unstreaked sides, clear pearl-grey breast, and bright crown streaked sharply in black and white. It occurs almost everywhere in Our mountains and I believe it to be easily the commonest sparrow from the Mexican border all the way to the Arctic coast. It also occurs widely across Canada from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Look for it nesting on the ground at the foot of a small shrub in thickets and logged-over areas. The song is very pleasant. Another one of our sparrows with a clear grey breast is the chipping sparrow, a common resi- dent in lighter woodlands and residential areas. Look for his reddish cap but remember that both the swamp sparrow and tree sparrow have their crowns adorned with about the same color. Look for a white stripe through the eye in the singing male and a narrow black line through the eye. While this is not invariable, chippies tend to nest in small conifers when these are available. They may also nest in a low hedge, usually but a foot or so above the ground. The spring song is a clear trill, very reminiscent of that of the junco. Another very common sparrow here is the savannah, a small brownish bird, darkly streaked, with a yellow area above and in front of the eye. They avoid woodlands, prefer- ring open grassy areas. — The song is a “tsip-tsip-tsip- wheeeeeecee-oh.” They build a snug nest on the i c BLACK-THROATED SPARROW ground, often under a clump of grass and they range right acros Canada and north to the Arctic coast. GOOD FISHING The salmon fishing at Sooke, etc. has been super, particularly for chinooks and coho. 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