Shane continues to come back to the yard every spring after being absent from late summer onwards. He becomes increasingly tame as time goes on. Last year, Shane and Shane nested in the hedge next to the fence and had 2 broods. The first was fledged on May 29th and the second on July 28th. On one occasion I was able to watch from 10 feet away as Shane gathered insects from the garden and fed them to a fledging hiding amongst the plants. If you closely in the photos you can see Shane with insects in his beak in one frame and the gape of fledgling with adult Shane off to the side in the next frame.
This year, Shane returned on April 24th along with some Golden-crowned sparrows who did not stay for too long. Sightings were sporadic until just recently when yesterday I witnessed Shane gathering nesting material in the backyard. Today, Shane and Shane were mating in the front yard. (see photos) It is interesting to note that things are happening much later for them this year likely in relation to the cooler weather than usual that we've been having here. As the Pugetensis sub-species of White-crowned Sparrow affectionately referred to as Shane is a common sight from home I expect more blogs on the topic will be published in the future.
