Fox Sparrows - 12 Nov 2018

I came home from work this afternoon and peered out the back window. Not one but three Fox Sparrows were foraging under the feeders out back of the house here at Brownton Abbey! Skies were overcast and dark, but I took the opportunity anyway to digiscope them from inside the house.

The birds were moving around quite a bit, and skittish, so the slightest disturbance would send them deep under the brush. Focus-peaking was difficult, but I managed a few nice portraits of the dark-colored birds.

I then took the opportunity to take some 4K and Slo-Motion videos of the foraging birds to compare the speed of their scratching.

Here's a Fox Sparrow scratching in the mulch at normal speed. The 4K video is captured at 30 fps.

 

Here's the Fox Sparrow scratching in the mulch at 120 fps. The action is slowed 4X normal speed.

 

Those little legs do move at a clip that is barely perceptible to the human eye. But, when slowed down they appear quite graceful!

I also had a brief appearance by my first American Tree Sparrow of the season. Winter is officially here. It did not stick around as the birds were flushed by a juvenile Cooper's Hawk that blasted through the yard. It scattered the 14 Dark-eyed Juncos that were also in the yard.

Just before dusk the Eastern Screech Owl stuck its head out of the box in preparation for his evening hunt. Snow is expected after midnight w/ 1-2" predicted (we'd get less than ½").

Brownton Abbey, 26340 Higgins Way, Wayne, Michigan, US
Nov 12, 2018 9:00 AM
Protocol: Incidental
Checklist Comments:     Feeder watch
5 species

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)  1
Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio)  1
American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea)  1
Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca)  3
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)  14

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S158298664

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)