Aster World, Part 1: Monarchs and Owlets

Symphyotrichum pilosum--Hairy Aster--is a native wildflower that volunteers profusely in the Creek Field, the Road Field, and our backyard.  It is an amazing pollinator plant!  This year I tried to document some of the creatures that came to the asters.   I am sure there were many more!  (Many thanks to bugguide.net and the Kansas Arthropods Facebook group for help with identification!)

These migrating Monarchs--newly metamorphosed, they're so bright and clean--came to feed on the nectar in the flowers:

Among the moth visitors, my favorites were these owlet moths, so named because their faces resemble owls.  This one is Rachiplusia ou.  Supposedly, "ou" comes from that splash of white paint on the upperside forewings--which to some observers spells "o-u."  :-) 

These little guys hover while feeding making it a treat

when they stop long enough to show their markings.

There's that adorable owl face:

Another member of the Owlet Family feeding on the asters was this handsomely-robed guy, Spodoptera frugiperda.  Here he is in action:

The females have more subtle markings, making their wings appear to be a plain gray.  The larvae of this species are called "armyworms."  Their voracious appetite gives the species its name, "frugiperda," meaning "fruit" that is "lost."  However, grasses are their preferred food.  S. frugiperda lives year-round in the south and migrates into Kansas toward the end of the summer.  

Other citizens of Aster World--true bugs, Tree Cricket and Meadow Katydid, flower flies, iridescent flies, spiders, bees, wasps, beetles, other butterflies and moths--appear in the following posts.

Aster World, Part 2: True Bugs

 True Bugs were also part of Aster World.   

It was a surprise to find these red and black bugs--Small Milkweed Bugs--on the asters in our backyard, because they normally feed on milkweeds, as their name implies.    But researchers have recently documented these guys feeding on flowers in the Aster Family--as they are doing here:

Small Milkweed Bugs (Lygaeus kalmii) feeding on Hairy Asters

(Symphyotrichum pilosum) October 17-19, 2021

The Helmeted Squash Bug (Euthochtha galeator) also showed up.  (S)he is one of the "leaf-footed bugs"--so named for the leaf-like enlargement of the hind femur.

I love that particular feature!   Together with the tasteful mottling and the understated two-toned antennae, that femur-flare makes this one classy bug.  

Aster World, Part 3: Spiders

Garden spiders love asters.   Nectar and pollen bring dinner right to their door.  Here a Banded Argiope enjoys a well-wrapped snack.

 Last year the Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) 

was common on the asters.  This year it's the Banded Argiope 

(Argiope trifasciata) that set up shop on the Hairy Asters.  

What makes some spiders "cute?"  Jumping spiders are famously "cute."   Here, in the asters, is one with an irresistibly adorable face, and a second one that just missed a moth-meal.  The Two-Spotted Herpetogramma moth was almost fatally slow but the spider was even slower.

The Banded Argiope and the jumping spiders were active during the say.  But as night fell another spider was setting up shop.  This tiny night spider stretched her web next to the asters, between two stalks of Indian Grass.   The outlines of the Flint Hills are visible in the background.  

 This spider, barely visible against the night sky,

 was going to work just as the Banded Argiope 

and the jumping spiders were calling it a day.

October 3, 2021.

Aster World, Part 4: Who Killed the Butterfly?

 

Someone had preyed on this Clouded Sulphur, but who? 

Usually when butterflies are immobilized and hanging upside down on a flower, a close examination reveals a spider's legs or one or two of the strange body parts of the predatory Jagged Ambush Bug.   But in this case I couldn't find any trace of the real predator.  The other creatures that appear here--the flies and the owlet moth--are after nectar, not butterfly innards. The only remaining suspect is the owner of that club-shaped, multi-partite antenna at the end.

Aster World, Part 5: Tree Cricket and Katydid

Katydids and crickets belong to a special order of insects--the Orthoptera.   Their hind legs are modified for jumping, with especially large femurs.   

A Common Tree Cricket came to munch on the asters on October 18, 2021:

A female of the genus Oecanthus (Common Tree Cricket)

munching on Hairy Asters, October 18, 2021.  This genus

has only modestly enlarged hind femurs.  

She is sharing the asters with a Cucumber Beetle and with Secondary Screwworm Flies as well as some tiny unidentified flies.

This katydid has a large head, making her look a little like her fellow Orthopterans, the grasshoppers.   However, check out those long antennae.  They say, uh-uh, not a grasshopper!

Here a female Greater Meadow Katydid

(Orchelimum sp.) moves slowly through

the Hairy Asters.  

What is she doing on the asters?  She may be looking for petals, seeds, or pollen to eat.  She is not looking for a place to lay eggs.   Greater Meadow Katydids oviposit in the stems of grasses.

Aster World, Part 6: Bright Iridescent Flies

 Flies came to the asters in droves!   Here are the brilliantly colored Secondary Screwworm Flies (Cochliomyia macellaria):

Secondary Screwworm Flies came 

in great numbers to feed on Hairy Asters, 

Geary County, Kansas, October 6-15, 2021.

These flies are part of the cleanup crew!   The females lay their eggs on carcasses, so the maggots can feed on carrion, transforming decaying flesh into living tissue.  The maggots will also eat necrotic tissue, helping to clean wounds.  These flies are called "secondary" because unlike some other Blow Flies, they will not inflict primary wounds but only clean up existing ones.    They can transmit diseases from one animal to another, but as decomposers they play a beneficial role.

It's the maggots that eat carrion.   Here the adults are feeding on nectar and pollen.

A second species of bright metallic fly also came to the asters in October.   This one looks like the Secondary Screwworm Fly, except the final abdominal segment is bronze, not green, and the thorax is solid green, not striped.   Some think this species is the Green Bottle Fly, also in the Blow Fly family.   Others believe it to be in the Housefly family (Muscidae), due to the modest bristles.  Green Bottle Flies have prominent bristles!   Here is this species in action:  

Shiny iridescent fly, on volunteer Hairy Asters.

Geary Co., Kansas, October 5-20, 2021.

Aster World, Part 7: Beetles

Aster-loving beetles came in multiple shapes and colors!

A Black Blister Beetle munched on the flowers, October 6, 2021:

Epicauta pensylvanicus has an affinity for asters and other plants in the Sunflower Family.

Two brightly colored beetles visited the backyard asters at the same time:

Volunteer Hairy Asters (Symphyotrichum pilosum)

Geary Co., Kansas, October 22, 2021.

The red one is a Convergent Lady Beetle (Hippodamia convergens), and the yellow one is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata).

What are they looking for on the asters?

The Lady Beetle may be looking for tiny insects to eat, though she may also grab some pollen to supplement her diet.

The Cucumber Beetle is a vegetarian and may want to eat the flowers or foliage.

If she fills up on asters she may leave our garden vegetables alone!

The Lady Beetle, on the other hand, is welcome in our garden!

In September 2021, the asters were covered with Leatherwing Beetles, Chauliognathus pennsyvanicus:

Pennsylvania Leatherwings on Hairy Asters, September 22-23, 2021.

The Leatherwings come to the flowers to eat and mate. They lay their eggs in soil, and the larvae are voracious predators, consuming potato beetles, aphids, and many other soft-bodied insects.

Aster World, Part 8: Crane Flies

Here are some Crane Flies that came to visit the asters in our backyard:

Crane Flies feeding on Hairy Asters (Symphyotrichum pilosum)

Geary Co., Kansas, October 2-22, 2021.

Most people have seen the sizeable crane flies, that look like giant mosquitoes. These are a smaller species, in the family Limoniidae, and possibly in the sub-genus Geranomyia--one of three groups of crane flies that have long mouthparts for feeding on flowers. Though these fast-moving insects make for blurry images, we can get brief glimpses of their long proboscises. These remarkable flies bob up and down rapidly while perching and feeding--a lot to do all at once!

Aster World, Part 9: Clouded Sulphurs

Swirling around the asters this year were clouds of Clouded Sulphurs.

 

There may be other species of sulphur butterflies mixed in.  They not only resemble Clouded Sulphurs but may hybridize with them.   

The caterpillars feed on plants in the legume family.   We have lots of those among the wildflowers on our land.   In addition, an alfalfa field is just across the fence!  

Aster World, Part 10: Bees

Common Eastern Bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) are the last bumblebees still flying in the fall, while Hairy Asters (Symphyotrichum pilosum) are among the last wildflowers to bloom.   

Here the two find each other in our backyard:

A Common Eastern Bumblebee forages on 

late-blooming Hairy Asters.

October 8, 2021

Two-spotted Bumblebees (Bombus bimaculatus) were the first bumblebees we saw this season (they were on the Foxglove Penstemon blooming in the spring).  The Common Eastern Bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) were the last, coming to the asters for nectar and pollen.  

Bumblebees are the most important pollinators.  

Honeybees are not native to the US, but many have escaped from managed hives and now make up part of the wild population.   Here is a feral Western Honeybee visiting Hairy Asters in our Creek Field in late September 2021.   Note the yellow pollen ball on her leg:

A Western Honeybee (Apis mellifera) visits volunteer Hairy Asters.   

She is adding to the large pollen ball which she carries on her leg.  

Creek Field prairie restoration, Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge, September 24, 2021.

Here is that bee in action, joined by a sister:

Here is another worker-bee carrying a pollen ball on her leg as she visits volunteer Hairy Asters in our backyard (October 6, 2021):

Western Honeybee, Apis mellifera, 

on Hairy Asters, Symphyotrichum pilosum,

October 6, 2021

European honeybees have been known to push out our native bees.  But from what I've seen, when it comes to Hairy Asters, there's more than enough for everyone.

Aster World, Part 11: Flower Flies

Next to bees, flies are the most important pollinators!  

There is a special category of flies called "Flower Flies," famiily Syrphidae. 

Many species of Flower Fly are bee-mimics.  

Flower Fly Dioprosopa clavata on
Symphyotrichum pilosum
Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge
McDowell Creek, Geary Co., KS
October 2021

But this fall a Flower Fly that is a wasp-mimic, Dioprosopa clavata, visited our volunteer Hairy Asters.

Such a tiny fly!    Such delicate markings!  

Look at that "wasp-waist":  

Look closely at the stems and you can
see why Symphyotrichum pilosum is
called "Hairy Aster."

                                                                           

The wasp-waist fooled me at first, and I thought this visitor was a tiny wasp.  But bugguide.net corrected my mistake.   I should have noticed the huge eyes.   They say "fly," not "bee" or "wasp."  

Flower Flies come in many sizes.   Eristalis stipator is about ten times the size of D. clavata and is a bee mimic.    In fact, I fell for the bee act when I first encountered this species years ago.   But this year I knew what it was! 

Here is E. stipator, resembling a honeybee and visiting our volunteer asters on October 15, 2021:

And here is Allograpta obliqua, mimicking a sweat bee and visiting our asters on October 11, 2021:

Sphaerophoria is another genus of Flower Fly that mimics sweat bees. 

Here is a male of that genus that visited our asters on October 16, 2021:

He too has large eyes, fly-eyes:

Here he is in action, feeding on the flowers and then grooming:

Syrphid flies are also known as "Hover Flies," as they can hover and zip back and forth, like hummingbirds.  

They are important pollinators and plant-protectors.  

The adults need the sugar in nectar to fuel their flights and the protein in pollen to produce eggs.   They travel from flower to flower gathering what they need and incidentally pollinating as they go.    

The females seek out plants that are vulnerable to aphid-infestation and lay their eggs there.   When the eggs hatch, the caterpillar-like larvae consume the aphids, protecting the plants.  In return, the plants provide nectar and pollen for the adults.  

The cycle continues!  

Aster World, Part 12: Wasps

This handsome wasp is a member of the genus Polistes--the "Umbrella Paper Wasps."  Polistes are large social wasps that share a paper nest that hangs upside-down, by a stalk.  Sterile female workers are the first to emerge in the summer.  Fertile females and males appear late in the season.  

This is a male (that curled antenna is the give-away).

   

Here he is in action, on Hairy Asters (Symphyotrichum pilosum).  

Many native wildflowers have already gone to seed.  This late-emerging wasp needs nectar to fuel his search for a fertile female.  Thank goodness for late-blooming asters!

Also depending on late-blooming asters is this wonderful potter wasp, Eumenes bollii.   This is a tiny wasp that packs remarkable shapes and segments into a small space.  Especially striking is the bulbous abdomen:

Eumenes bollii on Hairy Asters, October 2020.

This wasp does not appear often in Kansas.  Bugguide.net includes only two other entries, both from a September, in Cheyenne and Johnson Counties.   The sighting above is the only entry for Geary County and the only one from an October.  

Yet another species of potter wasp came to visit the asters, this one from the genus Euodynerus.  Here (s)he is in action:

Potter Wasp, Euodynerus sp., on Hairy Asters.

October 2021. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

Aster World, Part 13: Common Checkered Skipper and Snout Moths

A gorgeous Common Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis) came to nectar on the Hairy Asters (Symphyotrichum pilosum) that volunteered in our backyard.   The blue-gray color indicates a male of the species.  

Here is that little guy in action:

One species of Snout Moth that featured prominently on the volunteer asters on our land was the Two-spotted Herpetogramma (Herpetogramma bipunctalis):

The thumbnail shows the two spots on the dorsum that give the species its name.   Their wings make a shimmering robe.  And I love their tinker-toy legs!   Some of these clips clearly show the asters' hairy stems and leaves that give this wildflower species its name--Hairy Asters (Symphyotrichum pilosum).  

Another species of Snout Moth that came to the asters frequently was Hymenia perspectalis, Spotted Beet Webworm:  

Aster World, Part 14: More Moths

This moth's common name is "Dingy Cutworm Moth," so named for the non-descript larva.  But the adult is boldly patterned, clearly not "dingy."  

Feltia jaculifera is a gorgeous, brightly patterned moth

This male (note the furry antennae) is feeding on Hairy Asters,

October 15, 2021.  

In fact, an entomologist with bugguide.net says a better common name would be 
"Bright-striped Dart."  I agree!

Here is the Chickweed Geometer, a moth whose larvae eat wetland plants, such as chickweed and smartweed.  

Haematopis grataria, Chickweed Geometer,
on Hairy Asters, October 2021

This one is a male as can be told by the lush bristles on his antennae!  

He is part of the family of Geometrid Moths (Geometridae), or "Earth Measurers," so named for their larvae's method of locomotion.   The larvae advance by gathering themselves up into a loop and then extending forward, earning the common name of "inch worm."  Each "step" is supposedly one inch.   

Here is a grass moth--long and thin to blend in with the blade of a grass.  This one is yet another member of the Crambid Snout Moth family--so named for the extended mouth parts that look like a "snout."  (S)he doesn't seem interested in sharing asters with a neighboring fly.   Note that two-toned proboscis!

Lucerne Moth (Nomophila nearctica), a Crambid Snout Moth, 

enjoys aster nectar.  October 2021

Now for a member of yet another family, the Plutellidae, or Diamond-back Moths.  Check out that tail fin!  

Plutella xylostella, a Diamond-back Moth,
nectaring on Hairy Asters, October 2022.

Here (s)he is in action:

Flies come and go while this Diamond-back Moth

nectars on Hairy Asters.   But one fly--probably caught

by a spider--remains motionless.  

Exploring Thistle World

What a radiating presence is a thistle!   Winged creatures fly to it, and energized, fly away:   Here are some of the creatures that came to Wavy-Leaf Thistle (Cirsium undulatum) in the last week of June and the first week of July:

In order of appearance: Ruby-throated Hummingbird; Thistle Fly (Paracantha sp.); Grass Skipper (Hesperiinae);  Wild Joy Beetles (Euphoria sepulcralis); Looper Moth (Caenurgina sp.); Leaf Beetles (Diabrotica cristata); Blister Beetle (Epicauta atrata); Eight-spotted Flower Longhorn Beetle (Typocerus octonotatus); Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon sp.); another Grass Skipper (Hesperiinae); Bee-like Flower Scarab (Trichiotinus piger); another hummingbird; grasshopper; lightning bug; crab spider; Leatherwing beetle corpse plus Slender Crab Spider (Tibellus sp.); Silver-tailed Petalcutter (Megachile montivaga); American Bumble Bee (Bombus pensylvanicus); Ruby-throated Hummingbird. 

The audio features Dickcissels singing persistently with a Bob White in the background. 

Now the Tall Thistles (Cirsium altissimum) are starting to bloom.   Here is what I wrote about "Thistle School"--in the Junction City Union, September 7, 2021: 

 https://www.junctioncityunion.com/lifestyles/blessings-from-native-thistles/article_491e6dd5-e29e-54c6-b23f-434d886e1afe.html

Northern Broken-Dash Skipper in the Creek Field

 Here on July 26, 2021 was a new visitor to the Creek Field: A Northern Broken-Dash Skipper (Wallengrenia egeremet).   
                                                           

 She landed first on Bee Balm.

Then she hopped over to Echinacea.

Broken Dashes are Grass Skippers, with grasses as their food plants.  

It is gratifying to find Grass Skippers in a prairie restoration!

Frog Males "Dance" Together

Puzzling to many is the behavior of male Blanchard's Cricket Frogs!   They often seek each other out, two by two, for a "partner dance" involving leg displays and tumbling.  

Here are two little males I encountered yesterday along McDowell Creek:   

Only males do these leg displays, according to herpetologist Eva Horne.  

Females lay eggs in water, and the males fertilize the eggs externally--so what these male-male interactions have to do with reproduction is not clear.   

At the end of the video, one of the "dancers" goes off to start chorusing.  You can see his inflated vocal sac is almost as big as he is!  

Beloved herpetologist Joe Collins wrote that Cricket Frog "breeding choruses" may be misnamed, as they do not indicate that eggs have been or will be laid.  They may serve some "unknown purpose," he wrote.   

The interactions shown here appear more friendly and cooperative than aggressive and competitive.   These two youngsters play well, politely taking turns jumping on top of each other!  

Two-spotted Bumble Bee on Foxglove Penstemon

 Every prairie restoration goes through a "Penstemon digitalis phase," I am told--a time when Foxglove Penstemon seems predominant.   Our Creek Field is coming down off that phase, but there is still plenty of Foxglove blooming heartily.   This year the flowers were covered by diminutive bumble bees--a kind I had never seen before, or at least never noticed.   It was so hard to get a still photo, as the small bees were either deep inside the tubular flowers or moving hectically from flower to flower.   Finally, I had enough photos to submit to bugguide.net and got an ID:  Bombus bimaculatus, Two-spotted Bumble Bee.  Apparently, the identifying field-characteristics are small size, long face, and the second abdominal segment, where the yellow hairs stop before reaching the sides, leaving two black "corners."   I include freeze-frames in the following video showing one of the corners.    

B. bimaculatus has an unusually long tongue, especially designed for tubular flowers such as those of Foxglove Penstemon.  

Pollinators Extraordinaire: Green Metallic Sweat Bees

Over the years, small, shiny green bees nectaring on wildflowers in our prairie restorations have been identified for us by bugguide.net as two different kinds of Sweat Bees.  The first is a genus of "Striped Sweat Bees," genus Agapostemon, shown here on Wavy-leaf Thistle, in our Road Field.  Wavy-leaf (Cirsium undulatum) is a magnificent native pollinator-plant: 
 

The second is a different group of metallic-green Sweat Bees, classified as tribe "Augochlorini."   Here are some Augochlorine Sweat Bees on Grey-headed Coneflower, in our Creek Field:

Now after all these years I am finally putting two-and-two together!   Both kinds of shiny green Sweat Bee are members of the bee family Halictidae, and both are wonderful pollinators!   

 

Shift Change: Winter, Summer, and Year-round Birds

There are a few days in spring when birds overlap--the winter residents are still here, summer residents arrive, migrants from the south pass through, and everybody joins the year-round birds! That's what's shown here: The Harris Sparrows and White-crowned Sparrows are still splashing in the creek, getting ready to head north, while the year-round Song Sparrow also has a bath The year-round cardinal and goldfinch are sprucing up for the breeding season, practicing their songs, while a Dickcissel, newly arrived for the summer, enjoys the creek. You can hear him singing while another new arrival, a Blue Grosbeak, checks out his summer digs. That Indigo Bunting looks as if he needs to rest before setting up a territory, while the Parula Warbler is just passing through The Carolina Wren, a year-round resident, already has nestlings in a hole in the creek bank, but one of them has fallen out. Don't worry--Mom and Dad are still on the job. Meanwhile, the earliest summer bird to arrive in the spring--the Eastern Phoebe--already has nestlings underway

Orange-throated Darters on McDowell Creek

Orange-throated Darters on McDowell Creek, engaged in a communal spawn:

(Many thanks to Keith Gido, KSU fish expert, for explaining what the video shows!)

Here is a closeup of one of those tiny fish:   

And here is one of the males, all decked out for breeding season:

Many thanks to Pat Silovsky for showing us how to
photograph one of these elusive fish!  

The narrow plate-glass aquarium allowed
us to temporarily detain this handsome male long
enough to photograph him.  But it did not allow 
him to show his usual pose, which is hidden under 
debris on the bottom!

It's not easy to get a good look at a Darter.   

In fact, for years I didn't see them clearly enough to know if they were fish at all.  

I would see them scuttling across the bottom and diving under debris, where they hid from view.    I would catch the briefest glimpse of a dinosaur-looking head and proto-legs just behind it, sticking out to the side.   

What were they?  Tadpoles?  Lizards?  Some sort of larvae?  

Finally, I saw one in the open long enough to see the fins.  What had looked like proto-legs were actually fins stuck off to the side to keep the Darter close to the bottom:  

Nature educator Pat Silovsky explains more about Darters:

Director of Milford Nature Center

and stream ecologist

Dr. Pat Silovsky visited McDowell Creek on March 19, 2021.    

Orange-throated Darters are bottom-scuttlers--but they are also beautiful fish.

--Post by Margy Stewart, Prairie Heritage, Inc.  

All photos and videos are from McDowell Creek, Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge, Geary County, Kansas.

All's Right with the World...

   

...when Guests find Hosts!    

Clouded Crimson Moth caterpillars need plants in the Primrose family.

Here is a member of that family, growing in a road ditch. 

Gaura mollis, aka Velvetweed, is
a native annual/biennial that can grow
over six feet tall.

And here is its little "guest!"  

A Clouded Crimson caterpillar
munches on its host plant,
Gaura mollis.

A Clouded Crimson growing larger on Gaura mollis

Buckwheats host Cobra Inchworms:  

Climbing Buckwheat (Fallopia scandens)
hosting a Cobra Inchworm (Timandra
amaturaria) 
August 21, 2020.  Bird Runner 
Wildlife Refuge.

  Paracantha fruit flies need thistles.   

Female fruit fly, Paracantha sp.
on Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum)
Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge
August 16, 2020.  

 Female Paracantha preparing to lay eggs on Tall Thistle.

Dogbane moths look for--guess what--Dogbane!  

Cycnia tenera--the Dogbane Tiger Moth--
enjoying his host plant, Indian Hemp
Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum)

Not all guests are well mannered.   The caterpillars of Saucrobotys futilalis, the Dogbane Saucrobotys, can eat their host out of house and home:

Dogbane Saucrobotys Moth caterpillars
on Indian Hemp Dogbane,  stripping
the leaves off the plant, August 4, 2020
Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge

And of course famously, Monarch caterpillars need milkweed:

Monarch larva on Common Milkweed
June 9, 2020.  Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge

Many insects are generalists and can live off of numerous species of plants.   But some are specialists, like the ones above.   If their host plants disappear, so do they.   And if insects disappear, so do birds, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and eventually--us.  Therefore, it's a special thrill to see  insects finding the plants they need.   It means in some ways anyway, all's right with the world!   

All can share in this thrill!  Just plant native plants.  Whether it's milkweed in a window box four stories up, a 1/8 acre plot at a church or school, or thousands of acres of former cropground next to a national park, it will all help to set the world to rights!

 

Neighbors at Night

 While we are asleep and dreaming, these guys are all about!!

Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge

January 2021

Flint Hills of Kansas

Sparrows in Winter on McDowell Creek

Cast: In Order of Appearance   

Song Sparrow (very stripy)

Song Sparrow Having a Bath

White-Crowned Sparrow (mature--black and white crown)

White-Crowned Sparrow (immature--brown and tan crown)

Harris Sparrow (black chin)

Harris Sparrow joined by Immature White-Crowned Sparrow and Both Splash Away

A second Harris Sparrow joins the fun