ML643835742
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult, Unknown sex - 1
Media notes
used brightening feature
Observation details
Over the course of two hours plus, we had about four encounters with this species - singly each time, but given the maximum distance between sightings (about 80 to 100 yards), it probably involved 2 individuals. We began at the PIN spot reported recently - at north end of a crescent-shaped shallow body of water (100 yards long), where Joe Gula and Mark Rhodes were already looking. The first bird was foraging in the relative open in low, dense Bidens (sunflower family) cover, and flew to nearby cattails, where we had a few minutes' partial look through cattail blades - photos by Joe. After another half hour or hour of rambling near this spot (and up to 100 meters west), Joe and Mark found a bird near the original spot, a bit east, at the edge of Bidens/grassland and cattails. Joe got better photos than with the first bird, but Dan and I did not see it well. Joe and Mark left, and Dan and I spent another 30 minutes walking a little, waiting for the bird to acclimate to our presence. We flushed it again and got photos. PIN (using cell phone): 39.012711, -87.115857 (very close to the PIN cited by Amy Kearns: 39.0128889, -87.1166389). Habitat notes: extensive wet marshland with open "grassy" meadows interspersed with cattail stands. The "meadows" were a mix of forbs (especially Bidens cf. cernua, Nodding beggarticks, still in flower - yellow sunflower type), some plant producing numerous sticktight seeds, and various grasses and knotweeds. The sparrow was usually first spotted in the grassy vegetation, and moved to cover in the cattails. Behavior notes: When flushed, the bird flew various distances - as little as 5 meters if cover was close, or as much as 20 meters along and between cattail patches. Flight was not what I would call "weak and fluttering", but more direct and undulating (compared to LeConte's Sparrows that I encountered a week ago in upland grass/forb habitat). However, it was not nearly as vigorous or jerky as the numerous Swamp and Savannah Sparrows. At least 3 times, the bird perched in view for more than a minute, a foot or two above ground.
Technical information
- Model
- COOLPIX P950
- ISO
- 110
- Focal length
- 125 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/500 sec
- Dimensions
- 2082 pixels x 1988 pixels
- Original file size
- 862.78 KB