For awhile early Sunday morning, I was alone on Cap Sante. Alone, that is, except for the birds flitting about on their morning rounds. This little guy, a White-crowned Sparrow, sat patiently for a portrait as I moved east over the top of the hill for a view of Fidalgo Bay. According to a Web site hosted by Cornell (www.birds.cornell.edu), most subspecies of the White-crowned Sparrow are migratory, but the central California form, “Nuttall’s White-crowned Sparrow,” resides year-round in a narrow strip of fog belt along the coast, usually nesting within a few hundred meters of the ocean. Farther north, from southern Vancouver Island to northern California, the migratory “Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow” breeds up to 20 kilometers inland. It winters along the coast from Oregon to southern California, mixing with the resident “Nuttall’s” form. The two Pacific Coast forms are virtually indistinguishable, with pale lores (the area between the eye and bill) and dull yellowish bills. My thanks to Dr. Bob Prins. I thought I had a photo of a Mountain Chickadee…