This week we have a bird that’s clearly on the small side. It’s mostly gray but has a reddish patch on the wings and some streaking. With the streaking, sparrows are about the only things that come to mind. Of the larks and pipits and other possibilities, they’re all a little thinner, so a sparrow it is.
With the reddish patch and overall gray color, there aren’t many sparrows that are possible. In fact, the only one is Swamp Sparrow, which is what this bird is. In Waltham, Swamp Sparrows appear to breed at the marsh in Met State and possibly at a couple other marshes. They’re also fairly common migrants, especially in fields, but occasionally elsewhere. This was one of the elsewhere ones, as it was in the wooded section of Beaver Brook.