Le Conte's Sparrow Orgy (16Nov2014)

Ok Orgy is a little strong, but when you have only seen very quick glimpses of species that you have spent quite a bit of time looking for, and then one day get amazing looks at multiple individuals up close for extended amount of time, it is pretty much orgasmic and face-melting (stole this word from my new favorite blog BB&B).

On my way back from Lisbon last Sunday I saw the post that John and company had seen a Barn Owl and had great looks at Le Conte's Sparrows at North River Farms.  Somehow even though I just added 35 life birds in Lisbon I still felt like I was missing out.  Its like when I used to go surfing, I would be in the water surfing some great waves but somehow I still always felt like I was missing better waves somewhere.  I wish I was not so ungrateful but as Popeye used to say "I am what I am and that's all I am".  The grass is always greener.

So when I heard John was going to try for a repeat this Sunday I was all over it.  I woke at 1:30am and got on the road by 2:30am so I would make it to the "store" by 5am.  Once we assembled we drove into the farm and tried several spots for Barn Owls.  At the last spot Jack and I saw what appeared to be a Barn Owl fly in to check us out and then quickly veer off before the rest of the group could get a look.  Not a very good look but almost certainly a Barn Owl.  We also had multiple displaying Woodcocks.

Over the next hour or so we stomped through a marshy section looking for rails and John heard a Virginia Rail but we didn't get any looks at any.  However we had tons of Marsh Wrens and Sedge Wrens.  I love John because he just does not care that we were all getting wet up to our knees in the 32 degree weather. That's how hard he birds and its makes you feel like you are in some kind of crazy hardcore birding fraternity.

About two or three hours after we started and the sun had come up enough that we could get over to the Le Conte's Sparrow spot.  John and Jack lead us through the field and it did not take long before we found this little cute Le Conte's.  We think there was at least 2-3 but this particular bird was a ham and really offered amazing looks.

"Ok take a look at my front"

"Now my side"

"Oh you want to see my famous purple nape and white crown stripe?  Ok here you go"

"I'm so sexy it hurts"

Here is the same bird in a little different light.

Ammodramus is latin for "sand runner" which is an apt name for a group of sparrows that seemingly runs along the ground more then they fly.  However, in this shot the "sharp-tailed" reference usually reserved for one of it's colleagues is evident.

While ogling this bird we had a fly over of Tundra Swans.  Noisy bunch.

Of course there was plenty of other sparrows including Swamp Sparrows and Savannahs.  Oddly they were not nearly as obliging as the usually secretive Le Conte's Sparrow.

Yet more pics of the Le Conte's.

This was an adult bird that had much more pronounced coloration but he would not let us get as close to the foolish and bold immature bird.

We had a couple new birds for John's patch birding spot of North River Farms.  The first was a fly by Anhinga.

John gets tons of Eurasian Collared Doves in his home town of Moorehead City but this was the first he has seen in NRFs.

Even the ever present Savannah Sparrow can look pretty.

Immature Bald Eagle.

Great times!