Cassin's Finch + White-throated Sparrow - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

Geoff Stacks and I stopped at Chapel Hill Memorial Garden in Centennial (Arapahoe) today. The southwest corner was birdy. A White-throated Sparrow, perhaps the same one that was in my yard late last week, was mixed in with juncos, Spotted Towhees, and White-crowned Sparrows. A Cassin's Finch (Female/Immature) was also around, among many House Finches, feeding in ash trees and feeders in adjacent yards. The Cassin's was also occasionally calling. The White-throated Sparrow, meanwhile, only provided brief and just-barely-definitive looks through the row of lilacs and other plants that edges the cemetery. 

The Cassin's Finch was a rewarding encounter. I have only once previously seen this species, way back in 2014 on a birding trip led by Joey Kellner. (I remember how all the more experienced birders on the trip made sure I got to see it.) This was a species that Geoff and I hoped to encounter today, and the bird was the second species we saw while at the cemetery. Birding is rarely so fortuitous. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO