I did hear ‘sparrow’ being bandied about, so that may have been it. They were certainly excited about it.
I am not a birder, per se, but I have had two interesting sightings in the last week. Last Sunday, I saw a mature bald eagle, fairly close up as it flew across the road as I was driving between Cairo and Bainbridge, Georgia. Then, on Thursay, I saw a swallow tail kite near Lakeland, Georgia. It’s a little early in the year for the kite. It was a good week.
Southern Oregon here. The robins never left this winter, the acorn woodpeckers are exhibiting breeding behaviour and the tom turkeys already have their harems assembled. Been a strange winter, fer sure. I had a pair of golden eagles circling my new koi pond last fall, screaming their frustration that they couldn’t dive in for fish sticks. Sucks to be an eagle, I guess.
Got my first great crested flycatcher of the year today-their loud “wheep!” makes it pretty easy to zero in on them.
We’re looking at buying a spotting scope, both for terrestrial and sky viewing. I’d welcome suggestions. I’ve been eyeballing the Swarovski 80 angled view, but it’s spendy.
Well, we had a pretty intense fallout today-would have stayed in my local “hot spot” longer if I didn’t have to go to work:
[Jacksonville, FL]
3 summer tanagers, incl. 1 male
1 catharus thrush-probably a Swainson’s
1 chestnut-sided warbler
1 hooded warbler female
1 worm-eating warbler
several black-throated blue warblers, ovenbirds, American redstarts, northern parulas, and yellowthroats
[can you tell I am a warbler fiend? 
]
The next 2 weeks should be pretty interesting if you live in the southeast.
Reported
I was just coming in to say I’d reported it too.
But as long as I’m here I’ll say that this coming Saturday, 12/19, in the Annual Audobon Christmas Bird Count. I’ll be participating in it. My sister is head of our local chapter and knows every bird ever, it seems. She has an incredible life list. Me, I enjoy it, but I’m not nearly as knowledgable as she is.
I have been trying tp positively identify a bird I saw last night. He was sitting on a telephone pole so I could only see the breast clearly. Logic tells me she is a large Peregrine but a few things look different. She was very large bird nearly the size of a red tail hawk. Her breast did not appear barred in anyway but a solid very light pale orange. On flight tail remained closed and shorter than I remember, wings seems to be shorter and less pinted. It did appear to have a dark crown.
My inclination is to say a peregrine wouldn’t be that large, and the less-pointy wings would reinforce my guess. Might I suggest Swainson’s Hawk?
To add a somber note to a birding thread, my wife saw a Great Blue Heron struck and killed on the highway by the vehicle right in front of her yesterday. She carried the body kff the roadway. 
Anyone up for a Serbian owl safari?
I realize this is a zombie thread, but thank you for the update link.