"Here are photos of the Nelson's Sparrow that we saw at the Wastewater this morning and afternoon (see post below). Also we have a map of the location where the bird was being seen. The bird was last seen by us at 1:50 p.m. in the same location that Caleb posted for us. If you go and look for this bird, we would suggest wearing rubber boots or waders and walk around the cell trying to flush it."
Jonathan, Joseph and David Lautenbach
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4 comments:
Oh so some birds its OK to harass, I mean flush....
Point well taken, Anonymous. I'll leave it to the Lautenbach's if they read this and care to comment about their behavior. What I know is that when Caleb phoned me at the MLNP and I relayed his info to the people there, he recommended not approaching that bird "because the Nelson's is a skulker, and once flushed will probably go to ground and not be seen again". Of course his advice was for the benefit of the birders, not the bird, but as top-notch birders the Lautenbach's also knew the behaviors of the Nelson's Sparrow, so their photographs (as well as the amount of time they stayed there) indicates extreme patience to me, not harassment. I agree that the wording of their post might sound otherwise. At any rate, it's good for all of us, me especially as I posted this, to emphasize that it's not a call for everybody to go tromping all over Cell D6 as we know some people might (think Snowy Owls at this location). We often forget that everyone doesn't know the difference between pishing a flock of migrating sparrows to look them over and harassing a bird. Thanks for bringing this up. I'll be interested in hearing from others.
I believe this bird had been present since at least 9/9/ At that time, I saw what I had reluctantly called a GRSP, thinking "The parts don't match up." The bird disappeared into the grass before I could work out the identification, and didn't come back up (at least for the next 15 minutes while I waited).
It's convenient to post using the "anonymous" choice presented, however you should sign the message itself. (otherwise you're a chicken :)
Ken Sapkowski
Back to the topic: There's a fine line between looking for a bird and harassing one. We felt the "big lenses" were too close to the snowy owls last winter, but then again I saw the friendly one move closer to the cameras more than once.
Banding seems more stressful to me.
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