While visiting the farm we saw one of my favorite birds,

the Harris Sparrow.  It performed exactly as noted in

The Birds of Alberta by John Acorn. They appeared in

a large mixed flock of sparrows in conjunction with

White Crowned and White Throated Sparrows. They

feed primarily on the ground and they appeared in a rural

area while I have seen them once in Calgary they are most

often encountered at the farm in the spring

" Harris Sparrows are birds that seek out the edges"

Return to Warden's Grove: Science,

Desire, and the Lives of Sparrows

                                        Christopher Norment 

"There is a place where the town ends
and the fields begin.
It’s not marked but the feet know it,
also the heart, that is longing for refreshment
and, equally, for repose.

Someday we’ll live in the sky.
Meanwhile, the house of our lives is the world.
The fields, the ponds, the birds."

                                  Boundaries

                                     Mary Oliver