I just thought I would send additional information about the Lark Sparrow that I found today at Wildwood Park Marina which is next to Villa Angela and is now a Cleveland Metropark and is considered part of Euclid Creek Reservation.  I have a dumb phone and was not able to post the sighting and was having trouble getting through to the right people so thank you Paula Lozano for posting it to Ohio Birds and Rich & Karen Kassouf for coming and getting the word out so I don't get in trouble for not reporting an uncommon bird in a timely manner. I took some pictures but since the bird was in the grass most of the time and was soooo close at times (less than 10 ft) my camera was zoomed up too much and has its limits.  I usually park near Lakeshore Blvd when I go to these parks to get two passes by Euclid Creek but it was so hot today I parked in the marina for a change near water/restrooms & safer parking with people.  The marina parking lot
 has a very long grassy strip with plantings that runs parallel with the lake right down the middle of the parking lot and often has good sparrows during migration.  Today I got there around 3:55pm and parked at the far east end of the plantings. I immediately got out of the car to try to get pictures of three Monarchs that were in the Joe Pye Weed which looked lavender as I had not seen many lately.  As I was finishing putting on my gear & locking the car I heard what sounded like a Chipping Sparrow in the grass near the pavement just beyond the Joe Pye Weed and the bird look small.  So I looked with my binoculars just to make and saw it was a Lark Sparrow instead.  It stayed in the same area most of the time.  Once it flew 50 ft west in the plantings, went into the nearby trees and then returned to the grass near the pavement where I originally found it.  But this bird behaved like Chipping Sparrows that do the same thing in this
 area sometimes going in the honey locusts trees I believe.  Sometimes it was in the mulch area at the east end of the plantings.  After a few people arrived it flew just east of the marina but returned.  About seven people arrived (including the now awake Jen B. who was recovering from her pelagic and got much better pictures than I.  But the bird seemed unphased by people standing so close to it as it really liked the grassy area.  She felt it was an adult that looked worn.  It was around 7:30pm when we left it high in a tree with the setting sun on it.  Ironically, I found a Lark Sparrow up in Villa Angela near the lake on 9/5/2009 right after they had another one at Headlands.  
 
Nancy Anderson
Richmond Hts (Cleveland)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancy_a/   

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