FIVE Le Conte's Sparrows!

[semillama]

I went birding Saturday in hopes of glimpsing a Le Conte's Sparrow, one of the most secretive sparrows in the east. well, I wasn't disappointed. I had great views of five different Le Conte's Sparrows, in two different groups! Here's a couple photos:


A juvenile and adult Le Conte's


Yet another Le Conte's

Later, we had some good views of raptors, such as this female Northern Harrier (showing the distinct white rump):



and this 2nd-year Bald Eagle:



I also saw this weird caterpillar - any of you folks know your caterpillars?

[XemaSab]

1. I curse you!

:P

I spent most of the afternoon faffing around looking for a Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, and while I was out someone found a LeConte's locally! And that's not all! There was a Virginia's Warbler in with it!

A new bird for the lower 48 *PLUS* a nemesis bird could have been mine, but NO! :cry:

(Congrats on the sparrows, BTW :) )

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2. I got Nelson's the weekend before last, but dipped on a Clay-colored

which I lack for the ABA area. Saw a flock in Mexico, but haven't seen the bird since.

Damn sparrows! Worse than shorebirds!

[XemaSab]

3. Clay Colored, Le Conte's, WW Crossbill, and Skylark

are the four birds I have for ABA that I'm lacking for the lower 48. :P

I need to see more sparrows. A huge number of the sparrows I've seen once and never again, ya know?

I also still need Baird's and Henslow's. You know anything about those? :shrug:

[semillama]

4. Never seen a Baird's

but Henslow's breed here in Ohio, so that's a regular resident on my year lists.

[XemaSab]

5. Ohio is not on my short list of places to visit.

Maybe it should be... :think:

[semillama]

6. well, Kenn Kaufman moved here to help run the Black Swamp Bird Observatory

which is right outside Magee Marsh, possibly the best place in the Midwest to see migrants...

Yeah, I know - Ohio as a birding hotspot?

But yeah, it is!

[XemaSab]

7. Kenn's awesome

:)

[tigereye]

8. can you lay out some of the markings for the sparrow you saw?

I find the different sparrows so difficult to distinguish - maybe I'll get out my book to look it up.


Congratulations!

[XemaSab]

9. The critical thing on LeConte's is the purple nape stripes...

:rofl:

[semillama]

12. Well, the purple nape is diagnostic

but hard to see at a distance. Mainly you should look for the pattern of ochre and gray on the head and the buffy flanks with the patchy striping. In the photos above, because of the distance, the purple/chestnut stripes on the nape kind of fade into a grayish color, so you should be careful and take a good look at the bird to distinguish it from Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, which is somewhat similar. However, I find that Nelson's seems to have more contrasting coloration than LeConte's.

[mattvermont]

10. tomato hornworm

becomes one of the sphinx moths

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11. Thanks, I just do birds!

Some folks can identify just about anything they see in the field, but I am more than occupied just figuring out birds!

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13. Here's an astounding photo of one of the same LeConte's

http://www.roysephotos.com/

I mean, have you ever seen a better photo of a LeConte's Sparrow?

[XemaSab]

14. That IS a good photo.

The streaks on the nape look more cocoa than purple, though. :P

[semillama]

15. What's great about it too is that you can really see the structure of the bird

and realize how kinda weird looking it is - sort of looks like a mash-up of three different birds, with the large head and huge feet on that body.