A Sixteen Sparrow Saturday

A Marsh Wren in the early morning light

I made the discovery last evening that a weedy dead-end road nearby (which we affectionately refer to as "the sparrow stretch") was thick with sparrows and wrens. I ended up with ten species of sparrows including my first ever Nelson's Sparrow! I was not able to get any good photos of it, however, so I was back before sunrise this morning.

 The first good sparrow I found was this very confiding Le Conte's. It calmly sat on the wire as I stalked up.

Uh...Ahem there!

Dwight and Anthony soon showed up and we started looking seriously for the Nelson's. We weren't finding them where I had seen it last night, so we stumbled through the adjacent CRP field in search of more. There were indeed Nelson's there! We estimated at least ten of them, along with a few additional Le Conte's and a handful of Marsh and Sedge Wrens.

True to form the Nelson's kept very well hidden,  allowing us only a few decent shots.

I was fascinated to hear the the flight calls of both the Nelson's and Le Conte's Sparrows. The Nelson's was distinctly buzzier than the thin, clear call of the Le Conte's.

We had accumulated over a dozen species of sparrows by now and decided to see if we could beat our previous one-day record of fifteen species. A quick check of some sandhill plums thickets revealed a few more; including a nice male Eastern Towhee, only the third I've seen in the county and number sixteen for the day!

A grouchy looking Clay-colored Sparrow

Bryant and Andrew soon came over to look for the Nelson's. Unfortunately the sparrows were fairly uncooperative, and treated us only to brief glimpses in flight.

I think that Nelson's are likely far more common than current records indicate. Their habitat (small patches of cordgrass) is seldom birded at this time of year. So if you have cordgrass nearby, right now is probably your best chance for a Nelson's.

Joseph