Lincoln's Sparrow - 02 Oct 2020

 

It took 5 years, but I finally saw my first Lincoln's Sparrow this evening scratching under the feeder. 

I had grabbed the camera and stepped out onto the deck when I saw one of the resident Cooper's Hawk fly out of the trees. Hoping to get a pic or two when it returned I patiently waited in the dimming light. I then noticed a drab brown bird scratching below the feeder. Thinking it was one of my Song Sparrows I decided to test focus with the Sony a7RIV and 200-600 mm f/5.6-6.3 and 1.4TC. Hold on!

A Lincoln's Sparrow! Despite the stabilized lens I'd need to support the camera rig on the railing to get enough clear pics in the low light. The pics came out nice despite the ISO 3200 and 1/100 sec exposures.

Other highlights included a female Eastern Towhee and 3 White-throated Sparrows. I did not see my female Ruby-throated Hummingbird that was still feeding yesterday.

Brownton Abbey, 26340 Higgins Way, Wayne, Michigan, US
Oct 2, 2020 5:00 PM - 5:20 PM
Protocol: Stationary
Checklist Comments:     Feeder watch
4 species

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)  1
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)  3
Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii)  1
Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S160214480

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