Today’s bird walk with a friend was successful (in that we saw lots of birds, including some I don’t often see) and also unsuccessful (in that we saw several birds we could not identify).
We saw a number of waterbirds, including lots of buffleheads, a lesser scaup, a western grebe, 2 Clark’s grebes, and probably at least 3 other grebes that we couldn’t see well enough to distinguish between western and Clark’s. Also, lots of unidentified gulls and some other ducks we couldn’t identify.
Among non-water birds, we saw a huge number of western meadowlarks singing in the grass, a couple of Say’s phoebes, a black phoebe, a couple of house finches, a pair of red-winged blackbirds making a bit of a racket in the wild fennel, a Brewer’s blackbird, a couple of small birds we didn’t recognise, and one unidentified raptor.
Because raptors are both quite variable within species (with things like adult vs. juvenile and lighter morphs vs. darker morphs) and fairly similar across species (dark on top, lighter below, streaking and other patterning to make them more camouflaged), plumage characteristics are often not as helpful as one would hope. A better starting point for ID is often things like overall size and proportions, flight style, and behavior.
The brief hovering you describe narrows things down. My first guess would be an immature Red-tailed Hawk. Another possibility would be a Northern Harrier.
On your small gray and white bird, maybe Bewick’s Wren or Marsh Wren? They’re more brownish than gray, but I’m not sure how specific you’re trying to be in the color description.
On your sparrow-type bird, maybe an immature White-crowned Sparrow?
Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/675449483072569344.
