One less LBJ for me

LBJ. Little Brown Job. My field ID skills with sparrows are poor. I have honed those skills some over the years. Everything sparrow is not simply "LBJ" for me anymore, but I find that if it is not Song, White-throated or Chipping, then I am either stumped, or very unsure.

The camera helps. If I can take photos of it, and those photos are reasonably clear, then I can spend lots of time comparing my pictures to other people's pictures. I no longer have to rely on my (highly fallible) memory of the LBJ and its seemingly infinite brown patterns. I can let the picture remember for me.

So it was with my trip to DGCA this past February. There were plenty of sparrows around. Most were White-throated and Song. There was another variety, however, that I knew was neither of those two, but that I could not identify in the field. Nothing rare or spectacular. Just me, taking one more step on the path of improved sparrow identification. I recognized enough differences from what I was used to seeing to not pass them over as the tried-and-true Song or White-throated.

I took a guess (that turned out to be correct). To test my guess, I used the "Bird ID Help Line" thread of the Field Guide: Birds of the World group within Flickr. The answer I got there matched mine. My tiny personal struggle was with the little ol' Savannah Sparrow. Here are two photos of two different Savannah Sparrows, plus a third of a Song Sparrow for comparison. Unfortunately, all three were taken from above the bird, so the markings on the breast are not completely visible. In looking at these pictures, I find it hard to believe that I used to see Savannah Sparrows and likely dismissed them as "just another Song Sparrow". The difference in tail alone is substantial. Next time I am out in the field, I am hoping that I can confidently carve one more sparrow species from the giant, generic pile of LBJs.

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrows are very typical sparrows anytime of the year. They hop around the bushes and weeds that line the side of roads and paths. I was taking pictures of the sun coming down when I noticed a few of them hopping around in the weeds next to me. I cranked up the ISO on my camera to 1600 because the light was getting low, and these two pictures are a sample of the results.

Audubon Sanctuary

First thing this morning, we visited the Portland Audubon Sanctuary to do some birding. The birding was somewhat slow, but we did see a couple of birds that do not occur on the east coast. We also saw, however, some birds that do appear on the east coast. In one case, it took us forever to figure it out, and the other was pretty easy.

First, we have the simple Song Sparrow. I learned today that this species can look pretty different in the northwest compared to what I see back in Virginia. The first picture shows you how much darker this bird is out here (assuming you know what they look like back in Virginia).

The second photo is of a Barred Owl. I have seen this species back in Virginia, but seeing owls is such a treat, that I was quite happy to catch this guy hanging out while squirrels squeaked at him. The picture is a tad dark, but still pretty neat.

Song Sparrow

I think I was disturbing this Song Sparrow. He kept hopping around this tree and making this chipping noise. As long as I was near, he was acting that way. A small price to pay for me getting a pretty good picture of him.